Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stiles knows it was probably a stupid idea to be running around the preserve in the middle of the night considering the events of the last twenty-four hours. Finding half a dead body in the woods, Scott possibly getting bit by and turning into a werewolf, an impromptu visit from Derek Hale (A senior that goes to the high school with him and Scott) while looking for the inhaler Scott dropped when that herd of deer nearly ran him over. Plus his dad still has deputies patrolling the woods, so it would suck if he got caught out here again.

He was doing his best to steer clear of the area he was in with Scott earlier. The last thing he needed was to be spun into a weird state of fear and slight arousal by Derek Hale. And it would suck if he called the cops because Stiles was accidentally trespassing. Again.

With the snap of a twig behind him it was confirmed that this was in fact, a terrible idea, Stiles whipped around to see two glowing red eyes behind him.

“Fuck,” was all he said before he was running away in the opposite direction as fast as he could. He wouldn’t say for his life because Stiles was pretty sure he was going to die no matter how fast he moved his feet.

So many thoughts were going through Stiles’ head as he ran. Ranging from, well at least I know the werewolf theory is right, to, oh my god I’m going to die, like permanent death, no coming back.

Sadly, he had no time to think of anything else because his feet were being dragged out from under him. His chest hit the forest floor knocking the air out of his lungs, and before he could take in a breath of air, he was being dragged closer to the same monster that bit Scott. Then there was the horrible sensation of something ripping through his skin. He screamed out in pain as everything started to go dark.

Somewhere far away -or close by Stiles isn't really sure, he was too out of it to be able to properly focus on anything- there was a loud growl somewhere in front of him, two blue orbs in the tree line, a loud thump against what Stiles assumed to be a tree. The pain faded a little and then there was nothing, just the darkness.

BREAK

The darkness cleared with the moonlight. The moon was full, which was weird, Stiles was sure the full moon wasn’t till Friday. It was only Wednesday if he remembered correctly.

He looked around to see where he was. Still in the preserve, he thought as he looked around the trees surrounding him, good. In front of him, sticking out from all of the greenery around, was a large tree stump.

He went over to try and examine the stump but couldn’t move. He looked down to see his feet and ankles completely encased in the earth. When he looked back up, he saw a fox now sitting on the stump.

It was a red fox, like what was common in California, but different than a normal red fox. The red of its fur seemed darker, closer to crimson than the usual red-orange color you would typically see with a red fox, and instead of dark brown or black fur on its paws there was pure white; the white was so vibrant it looked like flames nicking at the fox’s legs and underbelly. When the moonlight reflected off the fiery legs it gave it almost a blue hue and at the point of contact between the fox and the stump there was a faint purple glow. But what what was most alluring about the creature was it's eyes. They were glowing amber but there was also a ring or purple around the edge the iris.

“What are you?” Stiles says more to himself than to the animal in front of him.

The odd-looking fox in front of him yipped as if to respond, and at the same time the wind blew, he thought it was just coincidence but there was the sliver of a voice in the gusts of air. The fox stood and barked at Stiles more, the wind was picking up, getting stronger as the fox continued to bark. The faint voice was getting louder and louder with the wind and he could almost make it out. He got three letters: Sci, but before he could hear the rest, everything stopped and then there was darkness consuming him once again.

BREAK

Stiles shot up breathing heavily. He looked around to see a ratty broken room. The air smelled of dust, ash, the woods, and… blood. The events of last night played back in his head and he immediately started feeling around his torso for what should have been giant gashes or at least some kind of wound, but there was nothing there. That’s when he realized he wasn't wearing a shirt. His immediate inclination is to feel around for his shirt but all he felt was the shabby couch beneath him.

“Finally, you're up. Now I can get this over with.” Stiles turned his head to see Derek Hale. Derek Hale who was his bisexual awakening last year, freshman year. Derek Hale who made him completely forget about his crush on Lydia Martin (who he now has the chance to actually hangout with because of Scott). Derek Hale who now stood shirtless and covered in sweat at the entryway of what used to be the living room of this random and creepy house.

“U-um what happened… last night,” he said through a gulp.

“You were attacked by an alpha werewolf.” Derek was diving right in. He thought it better to lay everything out rather then sugar coat it.

“Yeah way to state the obvious,” he deadpanned, which took Derek by surprise. “I mean what happened to the giant claw marks that should be somewhere on my body? Was I bitten or something, or was it the scratch? And what happened to my shirt. And would you get that look off your face, it may be cute but it’s not the proper expression for this situation.

And yes, I know about werewolves, I mean not thoroughly of course, it's more of a theory than anything. But Scott was bitten not that long ago, and that joke I made kind of got inside my head, so I did a boatload of research after I got home from the preserve and we ran into you. Oh my god, are you a werewolf too? That would explain so much about you and your sister, Cora. The whole brooding angry thing you two got going. And the occasional comment I overheard about loud sounds and weird smells.”

“Stiles.”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

“Okay,” Stiles responded, blushing slightly in embarrassment.

“You said your friend Scott was bitten.”

“Yeah, the other night. I kind of dragged him out into the woods to look for that body. I used my dad’s radio to find the police channel,” he explained.

“Of course you did Stiles. So you thought you would go into the woods in the middle of the night to get bitten as well.”

“What? No. I wanted to know what bit Scott. My curiosity and ADHD got the better of me and I went out here to look, see if I could confirm any of my theories about what it was. Even the one as far fetched as werewolves. God, I hate it when I’m right. It’s always about something bad too. And off topic but how do you know my name, and why do you keep saying it?”

“Your heartbeat is all over the place, I thought you might go into shock or have a panic attack. I heard somewhere that small things like saying a person's name repeatedly can keep them grounded to reality and prevent them from spiraling. And we have a couple of AP classes together. It’s kind of hard to forget the kid who has to correct every new substitute teacher we have on his name,” there was a small smirk on Derek's face. Adorable, was the only word currently in Stiles head.

“Oh, right. Um, so what happened to my shirt exactly.”

“When the alpha attacked you last he tore up the shirt you were wearing. It was basically a bunch of bloody rags. I always keep a couple back up clothes here so if you want I can lend you a shirt.”

“Um, yeah, sure. Thank you. So are me and Scott werewolves now or…” Stiles yelled as Derek left to go fetch a shirt. Pun intended.

“Scott, yes. You, I'm not exactly sure what you are.”

"What does that mean?"

“Scott, he smells like a wolf, you, don’t.” After a couple seconds Derek returned both with a shirt on and with one for Stiles. “And you don’t have to yell, I can hear you fine without the yelling.”

“Why, you were yelling? And what do you mean I don’t smell like a wolf? What do you mean Scott does?”

“I’m a born werewolf, so is Cora, and Laura.” He said the last name under his breath, hoping Stiles hearing wasn’t as developed as it appeared to be. Laura was still missing and he didn’t want the nosy teen to be involved, even if his wolf thought that Stiles could possibly help. “We grew up around other werewolves. As long as a wolf doesn’t mask their scent I’d be able to recognize one from over a mile away. Scott smells like a wolf. Your smell is close to a wolf's but there’s just something off about it. If it wasn’t for my family being mostly composed of wolves I probably wouldn’t even have noticed. Once your senses fully develop, which at the latest will be Friday-”

“Full moon?” Stiles asked.

“Yes. Speaking of which you are going to have to get your friend here before sundown on Friday. I don’t think Cora would like two strange supernaturals in our house on the full moon and we don’t want you two going and killing someone.”

“Fuck, Scott. What time is it.”

“Oh shit,” he said as he checked his phone. “We have to get to school before we're late.”

“Yeah. Do you have a car or something because I need to get to my jeep? Speaking of which…” Before he could even finish his sentence Derek tossed him the keys to the jeep. He caught them despite not even expecting them to be tossed at him. Right new reflex, like Scott with lacrosse. “Thanks.”

“Hey can I get a ride from you. I kind of ran here,” he asked as they went out the front door.

“Yeah. Fuck-” Missing the step of the porch to the burnt mystery house Stiles started to fall to the ground. While waiting for the inevitable face plant to the ground, Stiles felt a nice warm pressure on his shoulders. He opened his eyes and was met with Derek’s hazel-green ones. After a few seconds (though it felt like a lot longer) of awkward, yet nice, eye contact Stiles cleared his throat. “Right. School let’s go.”

“Yeah,” Derek responded slightly breathless.

They rushed down the path in the preserve that led to the jeep. And rushed out of there and to the school.

“Um do you have a way to get your backpack or are we going to have to stop by wherever you really live and pick it up?”

“If she noticed, Cora might have dropped it off at my first class for me, if not, then oh well. What about you?”

“Mines in the back seat. You know Harris is going to have your ass if you show up empty handed to his class.”

“It’ll be fine. I have my chemistry text book in my locker.”

“Yes and no pencil and no pen, not even a marker or highlighter to write stuff with.” At Stiles' comment Derek reached over to the back seat and grabbed Stiles' backpack. Then Derek opened the bag. “Uh, what are you doing.”

“Getting something to write with. And your phone, which is buzzing.” Derek said as he handed Stiles the phone and tucked a pen behind his ears -which Stiles thought made him look extremely adorable.

“And it’s almost dead. Scott's calling. Try to keep quiet. I don’t think it’s best to have him find out about werewolves over the phone.” Derek just nodded. “Hey Scotty.” Pause, “Yeah, no I’m on my why.” Another pause, “Yeah, I’ll explain that later. Mmhm. Listen Scott I need to talk to you later okay, I’ll explain a little more during lunch.” One more pause, “Yeah, yeah, okay. Listen Scotty, I have to go, my phone's about to die. Yeah cool, bye Scott.”

“Are you okay. I only ask because the smell of your frustration is stinking up the car.”

“Sorry, chemosignals right.” Derek nodded again in confirmation. “It’s nothing. I’m just trying to talk about something serious and all he can think about is Allison. And they just met yesterday.”

“Allison Argent?” There was anger hidden behind the older teens voice no matter how calm he was trying to seem.

“Yeah, why?”

“She comes from a family of hunters. I still don’t know if she’s involved or not.” They were just arriving at the school.

“Let me guess it’s not the usual type of hunter,” Stiles said while parking.

Derek shook his head. “Where are you planning on talking to Scott.”

“Either the library or the lacrosse field during free period. I’ll decide at lunch, feel free to listen in.”

They got out of the car and rushed into the building. They Both had the same homeroom, so they walked together. Except from a few venomous glares from Girls as they rushed to class no one really judged why the pair was walking together. Not that there was really a reason too. It wasn’t odd for Stiles to be blatantly staring at or drooling over the older teen. And not that he knew but Derek would often spare several glances in Stiles direction as well. But other than that the pair never interacted during school.

When they got to class Stiles and Derek separated without a word. Stiles went to sit with Scott while Derek went to an empty seat in the back.

“Dude did you just walk in with Derek Hale?”

“Yeah, so?”

“I figured just five minutes with Derek and you’d-”

“Scott shut up, please.”

“Hey who’s shirt is that. And why do you smell so… off.”

“What do you mean, ‘off’”

“I don’t know, you just smell different from yesterday.”

“How did i smell yesterday?” He said, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“More or less the same. But there’s something different. I’ll explain later at lunch.”

“Okay.” Great just more things to add to the list of things to discuss at lunch.

BREAK

The day went pretty much as Stiles expected. Scott kept trying to talk his ear off about Allison. Harris was a total dick, even more so to Derek because all he had was a textbook and the pen he stole from Stiles earlier.

   Anyway, everything was normal until lunch. Derek instead of just listening from where he normally sits, sat at the end of Stiles and Scott's table.

   “Dude she agreed to go out with me. To that party Lydia is throwing tomorrow.”

   “Cool. We really need to talk about Tuesday night.”

    “What do you mean?”

  “The bite. We need to talk about what's going to happen to you.” He wanted to say us instead of you but the cafeteria didn’t seem like the best place to say “Hey you know that thing that bit you? Well it bit me too. Now you’re a werewolf and I’m another mysterious were-type creature.”

   “What do you mean ‘what’s going to happen to you’. Is this about that stupid werewolf joke. Can you just drop that already? I can’t focus on your stupid theories right now.”

   Stiles huffed in frustration at Scott’s stubbornness. “Just meet me at the lacrosse field during free period. I’ll explain then.” Stiles got up and left. He couldn’t deal with Scott waxing poetic about Allison right now.

   After throwing his barely eaten lunch away, Stiles headed to the library to read up on werewolves and try to find something that might clue him in as to what he is. What he didn’t realize was Derek followed him out of the cafeteria.

   “So how exactly do you plan on convincing Scott that he’s really a werewolf and this isn’t all just some big joke.”

   Stiles jumped at the sudden voice. “Holy shit! Dude warn a person…” Stiles turned to see no one behind or next to him, “next, time.” Then Derek turned the corner. “What the hell.” He said to himself. Derek just had a smirk on his face as he caught up to Stiles.

   “Hearing.”

   “Right the enhanced senses and all that jazz. Anyway, my plan is simple. I do all the explaining and technical stuff. You just show up and do something wolfie to prove I'm telling the truth.”

   “What?”

   “You heard me. Scott won’t believe anything I say without proof. You, my friend, are the proof.”

   “And why can’t that be your job as well?”

   “Because I can’t control this. You said you were a born wolf. Meaning not only are you and your sister the only proof I have. You two are also the only ones who can keep us from killing someone.”

   “Fine. But what exactly do I do to prove that me and him really are werewolves.”

   “I don’t know, flash your eyes or something. You’re the proof you figure it out. Now help look for something that might explain what I am.” He said as they walked into the library.

   They only had like fifteen minutes till lunch was over and he still had another class before free period. Luckily that class didn’t involve Derek or Scott so he could let school be his primary focus for once today, like a normal teenager.

   While in the library with Derek the search was pretty much useless. While Derek grabbed any book he thought would be even remotely helpful, Stiles read the books. He was in the middle reading something about were-coyotes when the intercoms came on.

   “Derek and Cora Hale to the front office. Derek and Cora Hale to the front office.”

   “Um. Stay here I’ll go see what that’s about.”

   “No can-do buddy. Class starts in a couple of minutes. I’ll walk with you.”

   When they got to the front office Stiles saw his dad in with the principal. Cora came along not too long after that.

   Derek sent Stiles off to his next class but even as he walked away he was listening in on the conversation. He probably wouldn’t have if his father wasn’t there. But even though they barely know each other (besides the massive crush he has on the guy) Stiles wants to make sure Derek is alright. So Stiles listened to Derek’s heartbeat until the conversation between the Hale siblings and his father started.

   Which coincidentally was the exact same time he got to class.

   “I think you two should sit down for this,” his dad said, and being used to hearing his dad telling him the same thing he sat down at the exact same time. “I’m sure you two are aware that recently there was a body found in the woods.” The silence was deafening. The only worse than that was how fast Derek’s heart started to beat. “We got the DNA results back, and I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but the results match your sister, Laura Hale. One, or both, of you are going to have to come down to the station to confirm it's her.”

   There was a choked sob that Stiles assumed came from Cora and he swore Derek’s heartbeat just stopped for a second before it began speeding up twice as fast as before. “Shit,” he said to himself before getting out of his seat and rushing to the front office.

   He stayed far away enough from the office so his dad wouldn’t see him but close enough to where he knew Derek could hear him. Derek’s heart was still speeding up.

   “Hey, Derek, listen to me. I know you can hear me, okay? You’re having a panic attack. You need to calm down. Listen to my voice, heartbeat, your sisters. Just find something to focus on and use it to bring you back.” It took a few seconds but eventually Derek’s heart beat started to slow. "There you go. Just keep doing what you're doing. That's it."

   Not too long after that Stiles saw his dad leaving the school from where he was hiding. As soon as his dad was out the door Stiles rushed to go make sure Derek was okay, or at least better than he had been. He didn’t think the older teen would ever be alright after everything that had happened to the other teen. Everyone knew about the Hale fire that happened five years ago. And not too long before that a close friend and possible girlfriend of Derek’s went missing and was presumed dead. So the possibility of the wolf ever being alright was slim to none at this point.

   Stiles ran into Derek and his sister on their way out of the office.

   “Hey man, are you at least a little better now. I am so sorry-” Before Stiles could say anything else he was being thrown into the wall and held up off the ground by his throat. He thought it would be Derek trying to strangle him, the guys eyebrows were almost always in murder mode, while the rest of his face seemed to be judging if you’d be useful or not. But it wasn’t Derek choking him, it was Cora.

   “Who are you?” she growled.

   “S-Stiles. Little h-help here Derek.”

   “Cora. Put him down.” Reluctantly she let go and Stiles collapsed to the floor in a coughing fit while Cora glared at him.

   “He doesn’t smell like one of us.”

   “That’s because he isn’t.”

   “So what is he, because he’s clearly not human, Derek.”

   “You know I’m right here.” Stiles said as he got up, his throat only slightly sore now that the coughing had subsided. “And we’re not exactly sure what I am.”

   “If you don’t know what he is why didn’t you take him to the druid?” Cora asked Derek.

   “Again, I’m right here,” he said, irritated that he was being ignored again.

   “I haven’t exactly had the time.”

   “Hey!" Stiles yelled, finally getting the attention of the two werewolves. "You know, I really hate to interrupt this brother sister bonding moment,” now both of the Hale siblings were sending him a death glare, “but, we still have to convince Scott that werewolves are real before his denial sends him out rampaging on the full moon.”

   “Scott?” Cora questioned.

   “New wolf. Bitten two nights ago,” Derek answered.

   “Anyway, I totally understand if you don’t want to be my proof now or whatever. But I’m still going to need a way to prove to him he is a werewolf and this isn't just some big joke.”

   “No, I’ll still go with you. We need to find the Alpha now more than ever.”

   “I’m sorry, the Alpha?” Cora piped up.

   Derek turned around and flashed his eyes at Cora who in return flashed yellow ones out of instinct. What Stiles didn’t know was his eyes flashed as well when he saw Cora’s. Which is probably why she looked at him weird.

   “My eyes are still blue right?” She slowly nodded her head while still focusing mainly on Stiles. “That means whoever killed Laura is now the alpha and is clearly trying to build a pack. They started with Scott the other day and they bit Stiles last night.” She ignored the last part and just spun Derek around to face Stiles. “What was that for?”

   “You’ll see. Now flash your eyes.” Confused, Derek complied and flashed his eyes at the younger teen. The confused look on his face turned to a questioning one as Stiles felt like Derek’s steel blue eyes were boring into his soul.

   Derek’s eyes bled back to their usual hazel-green and he spoke. “Well at least that narrows it down a little. But it also gives us more questions.”

   “No kidding,” Cora deadpanned.

   “What?” Stiles was so confused.

   “Your eyes, they're amber.”

   “And?”

   “There are only two possibilities for amber eyes.”

   “A kitsune and a werefox,” Cora finished for him.

   “I’d say werefox,” Derek continued. “Kitsunes are pretty rare and I’ve never heard of someone becoming one after being bit. Plus, you don’t have the fox aura around you. But...”

   “But, what?”

   “That still doesn’t explain the purple.”

   “I’m sorry, the purple?” Stiles was even more confused, and the cryptic answers weren’t helping.

   “At the end of your irises is a purple ring that surrounds the amber that dominates the rest of your eyes. That’s the part that is giving us more questions.” Stiles' mind immediately went to the dream he had last night about the fox and the tree stump. They described his eyes the same way as the creature's eyes had appeared to be. But why were his eyes the same as the fox's from his dream?

   “Stiles.” Derek’s voice snapped him out of his spiraling thoughts.

   “Huh, yeah?”

   “You just had this weird look on your face. Is everything alright?”

   “Y-Yeah, everything’s fine just got lost in thought for a second. Now come on we have to get to the lacrosse field.”

   “Okay. Uh, I’ll see you around Cora.”

   “I’m just going to head home Derek. See you later.” The were' just nodded, not really having expected her to stay the rest of the school day anyway.

   They made their way through the halls and to the field. When they got there, Stiles wasn’t surprised to see Scott missing. When he went to go calm Derek class had barely started and it had only been about twenty minutes since then. The pair chose to sit in the bleachers while they waited for Scott. They sat in silence while Stiles tried to figure out what to say when Scott did finally get there. The other teen clearly thought this whole werewolf thing was a joke and his stubbornness was already starting to shine through.

   “Thank you,” Derek said about ten minutes into sitting down.

   “What for?” Stiles reponded.

   “Your help earlier. If that panic attack gotten too bad I could have gone into my beta shift. And that wouldn't have been good for anyone.”

   “Beta shift?”

   “Like this, how I am right now, I can control my teeth, claws, and eyes -separately and together- without technically being in my beta shift. Beta shifts are closer to what the public's image of werewolves are. We get the ears and the wolf-like nose and the other three features you’re more familiar with. Then there’s a full shift where we actually become wolves. My mom and Laura could do it so it seems to be common ability amongst my family, at least as alphas.”

   “That sounds so cool, man.”

   “Yeah and you might be able to do it too.”

   "Wait, what?"

  “All born werefoxes supposedly can perform a full shift, or so I've heard. I don’t know about the bitten ones, but it may be possible, especially considering you're not just a werefox.”

   “Awesome!”

   “Stiles!” the two here a familiar voice yell. Both Derek and Stiles look to see Scott running across the field unusually fast.

   “Here goes nothing,” Stiles huffs. “Hey Scotty,” He says back and makes his way down from where he was on the bleachers.

   “Hey.” Then he notices Derek walking behind Stiles. “What’s Derek Hale doing here man?" Scott asks in what he thinks is a whisper. "Wait did you finally-”

   “Scott how many times am I going to have to tell you to shut up shut up today?” he said through a fake laugh.

   “Well if you didn’t…” Scott gestured towards Derek, who raises a questioning eyebrow, “then why is he here.”

   “Shut up and he’ll tell you,” Derek growls.

   “Pipe down big guy.” A look of confusion crosses Scott’s face, while a scowl (directed at Stiles) blessed Derek’s. “Anyway, you know that joke I made the other day, and you think I'm still making.”

   “Not the werewolf thing again,” Scott wines.

   “When you got bit I started doing a lot of reading, and I mean a lot of reading- Do you know why a wolf howls?”

   “Should I?”

   “It’s a signal. When a wolf is alone it howls to signal its location to the rest of the pack, it's pack.”

   “You’re seriously still wasting my time with this. You know, I have a date with Allison tomorrow, I can't talk about this kind of stuff with you right now."

   “I saw you on the field yesterday, Scott. What you did wasn’t just amazing. It was impossible. Just think about it Scott.”

   “So I made a good shot.”

   “No, you made an incredible shot. The way you moved -the speed, your reflexes- people can’t suddenly do that overnight. And then there’s the hearing, the senses, and don’t think I haven’t noticed you don’t need your inhaler anymore. You haven’t used it since that night.”

   “I can’t think about this now. We’ll can talk Saturday, okay?”

   “Saturday? Don’t you get it? The full moon is tomorrow,” Derek said.

   “What are you guys trying to do? I just made first line, okay. I have a date with a girl I can’t believe actually wants to go out with me. Everything in my life is somehow perfect. Why are you two trying to ruin it?” Scott was focused on Stiles again, clearly meaning that comment to just be for Stiles.

   “We’re trying to help you. With the full moon coming it’s going to be too hard to resist and there’s no going back. We’re cursed Scott. And it’s not only that the moon causes you to change, it's also when your bloodlust will be at its peak."

   “Bloodlust?”

   “Your urge to kill.”

   “I’m already starting to have an urge to kill, Stiles.” At that Derek stood up, a low growl emanating from his throat. If he was in wolf form his hackles would be raised right now.

   After raising an arm to tell Derek it was all right and motioning for him to sit down, Stiles continued. “You need to hear this. The change can be caused by anger or anything that raises your pulse. And I’ve never seen anyone raise your pulse like Allison does. You have to cancel that date. You have to call her.” Stiles was trying to be as sympathetic as possible. Clear that Scott wasn’t listening, Stiles grabs Scott’s phone to cancel the date for him.

   “What are you doing? Give me that.”

   “I’m just trying to find her number.” Stiles was slowly backing away from Scott so it would be harder for him to retrieve his phone.

   “Give it to me,” Scott bellowed, his eyes flashing a golden yellow. Before even registering the flash Stiles' eyes start to give in return he rips the phone from his hands and sends Stiles flying into the bleachers. It looked like Scott was about to attack again but he was thrown away and hit the field, and by Derek who’s beta shift was on full display for Scott and was roaring in the younger teens face. Once it was clear that Scott was thoroughly terrified Derek turned around -beta shift receding- to check on Stiles. When he got Stiles into a sitting position the younger teen groaned.

   “Careful, I don’t know how fast werefoxes heal.” Stiles looked to see a scared Scott on the ground slowly crawling away from them.

   “I-I didn’t mean to do that.” He starts to get up and tries to check on his best friend as well but Derek growls and Scott backs away again. “I… I’m sorry. Really, I didn’t mean to. I-I have to go.” Scott then runs off the field and out of sight. Stiles stands up when Derek offers him a hand.

   “You okay?” he asks.

   Stiles pats his body down making sure he wasn’t hurt too bad by the attack. “Fine. Shit…” he hisses when he touches his abdomen. He lifted his hand to see blood now staining his fingers. He looks down to see claw marks across his chest and a ripped, bloody shirt. Stiles isn’t too worried about the claw marks though because as soon as he notices them they start to heal and not too long after that they’re gone completely. “Sorry about your shirt.”

   “It’s fine. We have bigger problems.”

   “If the full moon is really as bad for us as I’ve read, then it’s very likely Scott’s going to hurt someone. Plus, I still don’t think he’s convinced he’s a werewolf yet.”

   “Yeah, I don’t think he does either. But, I’m going to need to find a way to stop him alone.”

   “Wait, alone? What about me.”

   “We still don’t know enough about werefoxes to be able to trust you to stay in control tomorrow. I’m going to have to lock you up and Cora’s going to be focused on staying in control herself so she won't be able to help. You need to do the same. Meet me at the old hale house tomorrow after school. I’ll stay with you until the party is supposed to start and then I’ll go take care of Scott.” Stiles nodded. He wasn’t too fond of this plan but it was the best -and only- one they had. “Now, I have to go get a few things really quick for tomorrow. I’ll see you around.” And then Derek was gone too, making Stiles the only one still on the field.

   “Why do I feel like this is all going to go horribly wrong,” Stiles muttered to himself when Derek was out of hearing range.

BREAK

With only a couple hours to the full moon, Stiles pulled up in front of the old Hale house. Everyone knew the story, The Hale house had an electrical shortage due to exposed wiring that had somehow gone unnoticed and the house caught fire and the large family got stuck inside. Derek and Laura were at school when it happened so they were spared being there. Their little sister, Cora, was saved just in time by the sibling’s uncle, Peter Hale. Once Cora was safe Peter went back into the house to try and save the rest of his family but sadly failed. When they found Peter he was alive but horribly injured, with burns covering most of his body. He’s been in a coma ever since and has still yet to recover. Though given the Hales... nature, it was safe to that that the cause behind the fire was not accidental.

   The once grand house was now a burnt-out husk of it's former glory. Part of the roof had collapsed into the third floor and several of the remaining windows were either cracked, missing or had holes in them -the same applied to both the house's exterior and interior walls. The old house had an eerie yet beautiful sort of look and feel to it. Most avoided the house completely but. every once in a while, you would hear a story about some stupid kid getting caught trespassing after their friends dared them to stay in the house for a specified amount of time. And Stiles wondered if most, if not all, of those kids were caught because of Derek.

   It was sad really. Such a beautiful home reduced to what was basically the town ghost story.

   The day had gone better than he expected. There was no sudden outburst of emotions from him or Scott, but Stiles sense of smell had been acting up all day. Scott barely talked to him most of the day but when he did it was to apologize frantically about the day before or to wax poetic about Allison and freak out about his date with her. He tried his best to ignore his best friend through most of it but whenever they were in the same room together he could feel Scott's eyes on him and smell the regret and guilt he was producing in mass. Well unless Allison was in the room, then the other teen smelled of adoration, care, and… other things, things that made Stiles want to hurl into the nearest trash can. Stiles didn't know how he knew what Scott was feeling throughout the day, but he did and it was just as irritating.

   Derek and Cora were missing all day. Which wasn’t surprising in the least to Stiles. Their sister just died, who could blame them if they took a couple days, longer even, off of school. He heard that when the fire happened the Hale siblings took an entire year off of school and went to New York before coming back to Beacon Hills to be near their uncle while he healed.

   He was honestly glad to be at the old Hale house and to not have to deal with Scott for a while. All he really cared about right now was Allison and Stiles was tired of hearing about her.

   “Are you going to come in or just keep sitting out there.” He heard Derek say. It still confused him as to whether or not the older teen was yelling.

   He got out of his precious jeep, tripping along the way. When he walked up the porch and opened the door he was met with the sight of a considerable amount of iron chains. At one end of the chains was a pile of about ten cinder blocks. At the other was Derek sorting through a pile of locks that contained two sets of handcuffs.

   “Cause this doesn’t scream 'I’m going to torture and murder you tonight',” Stiles told the older teen.

   “You’ll be fine. Most of the chains and locks are to keep the cinder blocks together.”

   “Yeah, that doesn’t make this any less creepy.”

   “The cinder blocks are to keep you tethered to something while I go make sure Scott doesn’t maim and/or kill someone tonight. I still don’t know how strong you are and this is all I could get on short notice so we have to hope ten are enough to hold you.”

   “Smart. Still creepy though.”

   “Shut up and help me.”

   “Okay, jeez. I don’t suppose there’s going to be something more comfortable for me to sit on than the floor?” Stiles asked as he made his way over to the chains.

   “No,” he deadpans and Stiles rolls his eyes.

   It didn’t take long for them to finish the little set up Derek had planned. Turns out this had been where he woke up the day before because at one point when he tried to explore the burnt home he spotted the couch he had been laying on when Derek tried to give him the "Your' a Wizard Harry" talk.

   “How long till the party starts?” Derek asked.

   He pulled his phone out. “A few hours. Don’t worry big guy, you have time to prepare for the dreadful social event that is a high school party.” They were quiet for a little while after that but Stiles broke it. Silence makes him uncomfortable and uneasy, so too long without noise of some kind makes him fidget and causes his anxiety to act up. “So, how does this work exactly. Do you like tie me up and when the full moon is up let me take my anger issues out on the cinder blocks.”

   “No, once again. The cinder blocks are to keep you tethered to something. I don’t need you going on a killing spree while I’m out making sure Scott doesn’t do the same.”

   “But what if that’s not how werefoxes work. What if I don’t even need to be tied up on full moons, just watched carefully.”

   “Then we’ll figure that out later. Like I said I’ve never dealt with werefoxes before. We can’t take any chances, so until I can get Scott under control and we can properly see the effects the full moon has on you, you’ll be tied up just like he will be.”

   “Speaking of which, will you be okay out there. You know considering…” he was trying to find the right words without sounding insensitive.

   “My sister was found dead and cut in half in the woods," Derek finished bluntly. "Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with loss before.”

   “You know if you want to talk about it to someone, I’d be glad to listen. I may not know exactly what you’re going through, but I do know what it's like to lose family.”

   For a minute or two Derek stayed silent and so did Stiles. Despite the fact that he hated silence, Stiles knew it was necessary at the moment. He may hate silence, but he still knew how to use it to his advantage. Eventually Derek would break and start talking, it might not be about his family or how he feels but he’d say something.

   “Who?” the older teen finally asked. “W-Who did you lose?” His voice was hesitant and uncertain. He smelled uncomfortable but that was small compared to the grief and sadness that surrounded him right now. There was something else there too... Guilt, maybe.

   “My mother. She passed away when I was eight, frontotemporal dementia. It happens to be the only form of dementia that affects teenagers.”

   “I’m sorry.”

   “I am too. But I think we both know those words don’t do much. Sometimes they don’t hold any meaning at all. I think if we apologize to anyone, it should be to the people we’ve lost.” Derek nodded at that, if anyone knew what Stiles meant it was him. “As for the people they leave behind, we should just be there for them. Even if it’s just as a silent shoulder, somewhat of a quiet presence. As long as they have someone they can trust with their thoughts and feelings to stay by their side I think that person will be better. It still might take a while for them to heal but as long as you have someone to hold you up, it will heal, and they’ll heal with you.”

   It was silent again for a long time after that. Soon the smell of Derek’s sadness even lessened somewhat. It was still there but it wasn’t as potent. Stiles figured that they were both being a nice and quiet presence for each other in that moment. The thought made him smile to himself.

   They stayed like that for a long time. Every once in a while, they would engage in meaningless small talk that always led to another bout of silence. When it was time for Derek to leave and go keep an eye on Scott he handed him a blanket, put him in the cuffs attached to the chain, gave him a stern look and said “Don’t kill anyone,” then left. Not too long after that Stiles, with nothing else to do, fell asleep with the blanket Derek gave him acting as a pillow for his head.

BREAK

   Derek pulled up to the curb and eyed the house. There were a few teenagers on the porch and a couple more littered out on the front lawn. Stiles was right earlier; high school parties are the worst.

   Derek sighed and got out of the car. When he got out of the car he saw some of the people from the basketball team (which he is captain of) were there as well. A few looked surprised to see him there, others kept offering drinks and said he had earned the right to get drunk.

   If only he could get drunk.

   He made his way to the back of the house and into the backyard before going over to a fire pit near the back corner of the fence. It wasn’t too long after that that he spotted Scott being pulled behind Allison Argent. She had the typical scent of an Argent minus the smell of wolfsbane. While Derek doubted it, it could mean she wasn’t privy to her family’s real business. After the pair each grabbed a red solo cup and some beer they moved to where some other kids were dancing. While dancing with Allison, Scott looked off somewhere and his scent changed automatically to confusion and discomfort.

   Derek turned to see what Scott was looking at. He saw Jackson and Lydia making out in a corner, but Lydia was looking straight at Scott. No wonder he was so uncomfortable. He looked back over to Scott who was now staring at him. He held a glare, still angry about what Scott did to the person who was supposed to be the younger teen's best friend the day before. Derek could smell the anger that started to radiate off of Scott as well. The new wolf closed his eyes harshly. The anger wasn’t helping him control the beast inside.

   Scott pushed off Allison and started walking through the crowd of teenagers, swaying on the way out to the front of the house. Derek knew he should follow Scott but a better idea came to mind.

BREAK

   Scott scurried out of the house unsure what was wrong with him. He stopped outside and collapsed in the front yard of Lydia's house, too many sounds and smells overwhelming him.

   He finally managed to get to back on his feet and started towards his mom’s car. When he got in the car he dropped his head onto the steering wheel and tried to calm down. When he felt like he was well enough to start driving he lifted his head and put the keys into the ignition. When he was about to pull out of his spot he noticed Allison moving across the front yard of the house, then he noticed who she was following. Derek. A low growl emitted from his throat. He would have been concerned if not for the anger now clouding his judgement.

   Derek led Allison to the side of his car, opening the door for her so she could climb in, then went around and got in the vehicle himself. When he pulled out onto the road, Scott was quick to follow behind him. He was doing his best to keep from careening down the street and ramming into the back of Derek’s sleek-black Camaro -the only thing keeping him from doing so was the fact that Allison was in the car too.

   With his anger rising Scott felt something pushing out of his gums and putting pressure on his bottom lip. He looked in his rear-view mirror to see what it was but what he saw almost caused him too to drive off the side of the road. The reflection showed him with wolf-like features. Different ears, a wolf-like nose, added facial hair that would have taken him months to grow on his own, and fangs. What scared him most though was that his eyes were glowing yellow.

   He pulled over to the side of the road and quickly got out of the car. He hurried over to the line of trees he pulled up next to and ran into the woods. After about 5 minutes in he tripped and collapsed against a tree and saw that his nails had turned to claws which caused him to jump away from the tree. He continued to wander around the trees for god knows how long. It felt like it had been hours, but he couldn’t have been there for more than thirty minutes. He walked for about five more minutes when something caught his attention. A scent? Allison’s sent, he realized and started running toward wherever Allison was, letting instinct and the scent guide him to her.

   He made it to another patch of trees in the woods, the trees further apart than before. It didn’t take him long to find what was attracting him, but it wasn’t Allison. Not too far from where he stood was the jacket she wore to the party. It was hanging on a low branch of a tree.

   He went to grab the coat but when he was pulling the jacket down something sailed through the air and ripped through his arm and pinned it to a tree causing him to drop the jacket and roar out in pain.

BREAK

   Watching from a distance as Scott grabbed Allison’s jacket, Derek cursed under his breath when Scott was shot with a hunters arrow. The original plan was to lure Scott in with the jacket then knock him out but he forgot about the recent hunter development.

   Taking down the two hunters on the outside of the line of three -the one in the middle not even looking stunned- he rushed over and pulled the arrow out of Scott's arm while the third hunter was still distracted and dragged him away from the are. He narrowly avoided a couple projectiles on the way. Once they were a safe distance from the hunters Derek let go of Scott and pushed him towards a tree.

   “Where is she?” Scott demanded.

   “She’s home, safe. From you.”

   “Who were they?”

   “Hunters. The kind that have been hunting us for centuries.” Derek moved forward slightly, and Scott sunk further into the tree.

   “Us? You mean you! You did this to me!” Scott quickly stood back up and jumped at Derek who caught him by the throat and slammed him into the tree he was previously cowering against.

   Still holding the younger teenager up by the throat Derek continued with the conversation. “Is it really so bad, Scott? That you can see better, hear more clearly, move faster than any human could ever hope? You’ve been given something that most people would kill for. The bite is a gift.”

   “I… don’t… want it,” he said between breaths. Scott was desperately clawing at Derek’s hand and wrist trying to get him to release his grip on his throat.

   “You will. And you and Stiles are going to need me if you want to learn how to control it.” Scott’s eyes widened when Derek said the name of his best friend. “So you, him and me, Scott – we’re brothers now.”

   Derek loosened his grip on Scott’s throat and could see the younger teen relax slightly. He quickly moved his hand to grip Scott’s crooked jaw and slammed his head into the tree he was holding him up against. The beta went limp almost instantly and Derek threw his unconscious body over his shoulder and made his way to the old Hale house.

   It didn’t take him long to get to his old home. He could find his way to it from anywhere in the preserve. When he entered the house he set Scott down. That’s when he noticed something was missing, or rather someone. The air smelled largely of thunderstorms, fox, and earth. Where Stiles was supposed to be tied up was a pile of his clothes instead. “Fuck,” was all he said before he grabbed Stiles clothes, chained Scott up, and left to go search for the other missing teen.

BREAK

   Stiles wasn’t exactly sure when he passed out or when he woke up but when he was aware that he was awake it was strange. He was in the middle of the woods and he could feel something pulling him, like it was calling him. Curious he started to move towards the mysterious magnet like object but when he realized what he was walking on he almost ran in the opposite direction.

   He was on four, furry legs. The fur on his legs, and apparently paws, was white and, in Stiles opinion, looked almost like flames. He turned his head to try and see as much of his new form as possible. As soon as he saw the crimson red fur though he didn’t need to. He was the fox from his dream.

   Though strange, being a fox... it felt right, in a way. After taking a minute to get used to his new body he once again continued to follow whatever was pulling him.

   Based on any horror movie Stiles knew he probably shouldn’t be following the mysterious force pulling him deeper into the woods. But his curiosity and instinct were a lot more powerful than his horror movie expertise. When he got to his destination he arrived at the tree stump that had also appeared in his dream. Right now every instinct he had was screaming for him to interact with the stump, just one touch. But there was something else telling him not to, something in the back of his head. A voice maybe? Whatever it was he trusted it a lot more than his instincts at the moment, or this stump.

   He walked around the unusually large stump. Something was definitely off about this thing. Stiles could feel the power radiating from it. And though the temptation to explore that power was strong, the voice in the back of his head was stronger.

   He examined the stump further making sure not to get too close to the thing. At one point he tried to use his other senses and sniffed the stump. When he did an involuntary growl came from his throat. Then he heard a howl. He doesn’t know how he knew it was Derek, especially considering he had never heard the guy howl before mainly just growl. But the pull when he heard the howl was almost as strong as the pull to the stump had been. He started running towards the sound then howled himself to let Derek know where he was.

   It took about ten minutes for them to meet each other. Derek was in his full beta shift and was obviously confused, but Stiles figured it was more the way he looked as a fox than the fact that he was a fox. If the clothes in his hand were anything to go by that is.

   “You think you can turn back?” he asked.

   Stiles tried to say “I don’t know” but all that came out was a couple of barks. Derek sighed but seemed to understand.

   “You need to find something to focus on.” He set the clothes down in front of Stiles and then sat down on the forest floor. “An anchor. You know what you said to me earlier when I almost had that panic attack. Follow your own advice. Focus on a person or a heart beat, a memory, anything. Find something to ground you and pull you back to your human state. Now I’m going to turn around because when you come back you’re going to be naked and I'm sure you'd rather me not see you like that.” And right he was.

   When Derek turned around Stiles did what he said. He first tried to find a memory to focus on. When that failed he moved on to people, his dad was the first person he tried, then Scott, his last resort was his mom. But none of them worked. He kept trying to find someone, something, to focus on but nothing he tried worked. Then he landed on Derek’s heartbeat and figured why not. He focused on the older teen’s heart beat and drowned out all surrounding sounds, letting the steady thumping consume him.

   When he opened his eyes he was butt naked with Derek in front of him. Never had he been so glad for someone avoiding looking at him. As quickly as possible he put on the clothes that Derek brought him and told the other teen it was okay to turn around.

   “At least that confirms one answer about the question of what you are,” Derek says.

   “But this still doesn’t explain the purple,” Stiles points out.

   “No, it doesn’t, but we still have time to figure that out. Now come on, I left Scott tied up at the house.” Great, Stiles thought, more things to explain.

   “Let’s get this over with,” he mumbled and they made their way back to the old Hale house.

Chapter Text

When they got back to the old Hale house Scott was still passed out and chained to the cinder blocks.

   Stiles was able to stay in control for the rest of the night, which surprised him considering as soon as he passed out he went into his ‘Full Shift’ or whatever Derek called it. The older teen was not surprised and when Stiles asked about it he simply said “One thing werefoxes are known for is their amazing ability to control themselves. I didn't know if that included the full moon or not and, for the most part, it looks like it does.” When Stiles looked at him confused then gestures to where Scott was laying, chained up Derek rolled his eyes and added, “I still haven’t ever actually encountered a werefox, before you that is. For all I know that could have been a big lie and someone would have died tonight. By your hands.” Stiles just nodded.

   They stayed silent, mostly, until Scott woke up, with Stiles checking his phone every now and then in case his dad texted him and Derek paying close attention to the sleeping beta and sparing the occasional glance at Stiles because ‘he could never be to sure’. Or, unbeknownst to Stiles, that was the -partial- excuse he used.

   They stayed like that for hours until Scott shot awake.

   The new wolf looked around the room in a panic until his eyes landed on Stiles and Derek. “Where am I?” he asked the other two teens. “Why is Stiles here?” That question was aimed at Derek specifically.

   Derek opened his mouth to speak but was immediately cut off by Stiles. “He called me in case you went all wolfy again. He knew I found out about the werewolf thing, especially because of yesterday. Well technically the day before yesterday now.”

   “How’d he even call you?”

   “Your Phone,” Derek said while looking skeptically at the fox sitting next to him. Why doesn’t he want Scott to know, he thought.

   Stiles gave him a pleading look that while Scott was messing with his shackles, trying to get them off most likely. Derek gave the younger teen his best fine-but-we’ll-talk-about-this-later look, Stiles seemed to understand and nodded his head in appreciation.

   “So what happened?” Scott gave Stiles a confused look and the fox in turn rolled his eyes. “What happened while you guys were out in the woods? How’d you get Scott back?”

   “He lured me somewhere with Allison’s jacket, got me attacked by hunters, tried to convince me that this thing he turned me into…” Stiles raised a questioning eyebrow at Derek because of the bit accusation but the man was just shaking his head at Scott’s ridiculousness, “was some kind of gift, called us “brothers”, then knocked me out.”

   “You think Derek bit you.”

   “Yeah, who else could have done it.” Stiles just let out a sigh of frustration. His best friend could be a real dumbass sometimes.

   “Derek your side of this messed up story.”

   “You really want to hear his side of the story.” Stiles glared poisonous daggers at his friend who looked away, chastised, and grumbled angrily.

   When Scott was finally silent Stiles continued, “Derek.”

   “Scott was losing control at the party, when he finally couldn’t take the sensory overload anymore he rushed out of the house leaving Allison behind. I offered her a ride home with the intent of getting Scott to follow me, which he did while being painfully obvious about it. He pulled off to the side of the road at some point and I finished taking Allison home and she happened to leave her jacket in my car.

   “When I was driving back through the way that I had gotten to her house from, I saw Scott’s car on the side of the road next to the woods and got an idea. I parked in front of him, grabbed the jacket and got out of the car. Once I got deep enough into the woods I hung the jacket on a low hanging branch of some random tree, hoping it would lure Scott to me. It did. I had originally planned to sneak up behind him, knock him out, and bring him here.

   “What I forgot to account for were the hunters that have recently taken up residence in Beacon Hills. When he grabbed the jacket, one of the hunters that were out there to shot him in the arm, pinning both his arm and him in general to the tree. I knocked two of them out, saving your ass,” he growled at Scott, “pulled the arrow out of his arm and dragged him away from the hunters. When we were finally away from the hunter I threw him against a tree, he accused me of biting him…”

   “Because you did,” Scott basically yelled.

   Ignoring the other wolf, Derek continued. “He then tried, and failed, to attack me. I explained to him that being a werewolf wasn’t the worst thing in the world and should be considered a gift, which he basically spit back in my face. I told him in a simple form he was stuck with me until he learned control, knocked him out, brought him here then called you, Stiles.” The fox nodded his head then went into deep thought.

   “Come on, man. You don’t really believe him over me, do you.”

   “Did his heart beat ever skip or flutter?”

   “No. I don’t think so. What does that have to do with anything.”

   “Derek did Scott’s heart beat skip or flutter?”

   “No,” he answered simply.

   “There you go. You both told the story as you saw it. You both told your own versions of the truth. The basic points being: Derek using Allison’s scent to lure you in, Scott, hunters attacking you guys, he saved you, you two got uppity with each other, in some form Derek said you’re stuck with him -which you both clearly don’t like- he knocked you out and brought you here. There you go, story in its simplest form.”

   “You’re still siding with him on most of it,” Scott complained

   “Derek’s story was less biased. It was best to assume he was the one telling most of the story like it was. It's nothing personal Scotty.”

   “Yeah right, you’re just siding with him because you-” before Scott could say anything else, Stiles basically tackled the other teen trying to shut him up. In the process Scott hit his head hard on the cinder blocks that he was chained to, effectively knocking the teen out. Again.

   Ignoring the sudden outburst of weirdness from Stiles, despite his curiosity, Derek decided to ask his question from earlier. “Why didn’t you want to tell Scott about what you are?”

   The sudden noise startled Stiles, causing him to jump and almost land on his back. Which would have hurt like a son of a bitch considering how many splinters and small cuts the wood floor would probably give him. Finally composing himself Stiles spoke.

   “I want to be the one to tell him and I didn’t think this would be the best time to do so.”

   “I think this would have been the best time to tell him.” Stiles shook his head at that.

   “We still don’t know what I am, fully that is. Until we know what the purple ring around my eyes mean, I want to keep this a secret for as long as possible.” Derek nodded more in understanding than in agreement.

   “Why didn’t you tell him the hunters in the woods worked for or were the Argents?” Stiles asked.

   “Because it’ll sting more when he finds out on his own,” Derek smirked causing Stiles to roll his eyes at the older teen's ridiculousness and pettiness. 

   “Well, big guy, I don’t know about you but I could use a nap. Being a blood red fox can really take it out of a person.” Instead of turning to put his head on the arm of the couch, like Derek expected, Stiles put his head in Derek’s lap. Using his thighs as pillows.

   At first Derek froze and stiffened at the touch. His heart felt like it was about to leap out of his chest, and Stiles’ sounded like it was about to do the same. Derek sniffed the air and found embarrassment, contentment, and tiredness radiating from the younger teen. It wasn’t long after that, that he finally loosened up and relaxed into the touch. After about ten minutes Stiles' heartbeat and breathing both became steady and calm and soft snores followed it. Derek smiled down at the young fox and gently placed a hand on his arm, doing whatever it took not to wake Stiles.

   It didn't take too long for him to start to drift to sleep as well. The sound of Stiles' heartbeat lulling him into the darkness.

BREAK

   A loud “Ahem” startled Derek and Stiles awake. Scott was sitting on the floor stilled chained to the cinder blocks. Derek looked out of the window to see the sun just starting to rise.

   “Ten more minutes dad,” Stiles grumbled then fell face first into Derek’s lap, making the wolf stiffen and a deep shade of blush to creep on to his face. It took all of 2 seconds for any reminisce of sleep to leave Stiles and him to jump away from Derek. His face looked like a tomato. “Sorry,” the teen muttered, avoiding any possible eye contact with Derek.

   “I-It’s fine,” Derek stuttered, refusing to meet Stiles eyes as well, His face turned an even deeper shade of red, matching Stiles in his tomato-faced state.

   “Great,” Scott blurted out, causing the other two teenagers to glare at him. “Now can someone uncuff me please.”

   Growling under his breath Derek got up and unlocked the cuffs around Scott's wrist. As he got back up Derek muttered some curses directed towards Scott, knowing full well both he and Stiles could hear what he was saying. Out of the corner of his eye Derek could see Stiles using his hand to cover an amused smile, which made him smirk a little too.

   Rubbing his wrist and looking angrily at up Derek, Scott said, “Stiles we should get going. We need to get ready for school and your dad’s going to be home soon.”

   “Shit, dad. See you later Derek. Or I’ll text you. Yeah, I’ll text you. Bye,” Stiles yelled as he barreled out the door. Scott wasn’t too far behind him but before he left he sent one more glare to a slightly bewildered Derek.

   They quickly made their way to the jeep, which was parked further away than Stiles remembered. As soon as they got in the car the fox tore out of the preserve and started booking it to his house.

   “Whoa dude slow down.”

   “Hell no, okay. I was barely able to convince my dad I was at your place the other night, he made me promise I would be at home last night.”

   “We’ll be fine. You can get there on time.”

   “Listen Scott I don’t know how fast you can go on that little bike of yours but going Roscoe’s normal speed we’d get there like twenty minutes after my dad does.”

   “Wait why did you tell your dad you spent the other night with me? Did you have a late visit with a certain brooding senior?”

   “What, no," Stiles lied. "Me and Derek aren’t even friends.”

   “Yeah and I totally didn’t wake up to see you with your head in his lap and Derek’s arm draped around you," he said with a shit eating grin. "Which was kind of weird by the way.”

   “Oh my god dude, nothing happened. And again, we're not even friends, so just drop it, okay?”

   “Shit.”

   “What now.” Stiles growled, his frustration with the wolf next to him slowly rising.

   “My mom’s car.”

   “What about it.”

   “I left it on the side of the road when I was following Derek and Allison. Fuck, Allison.”

   “Whoa, TMI dude.”

   “No I totally left her at the party she’s going to be so pissed,” he wined.

   “As pissed as your mom’s going to be when you tell her you left her car on the side of the road just begging for it to be stolen.”

   “Aw man, fuck me.”

   “No offense, Scotty, but you’re not really my type.”

   “Shut up. Now can you drop me off at my car.”

   “Hell. No. We’re already at my house. You can go find the car you left on the side of the road by yourself. I’ll see you later." Stiles said as he opened the door to the jeep. "Oh, and tell me how the begging for forgiveness to the two most important women in your life goes.”

   “Ugh, don’t remind me dude.”

BREAK

   Walking through the locker room Stiles found Scott leaning against his Locker with a dazed look on his face. “Hey. So, uh, did you apologize to Allison.”

   “Yeah.”

   “Is she giving you another chance or-”

   “Yeah,” Scott repeated.

   “Yeah! All right. So, everything’s good?”

   “No.”

   “No?”

   “Remember- The hunters. Her dad is one of them.”

   “Her dad,” Stiles questioned more in shock than confusion.

   “Shot me…”

   “Allison’s Father.”

   “With a crossbow.”

   “Allison’s father-” He was about to say “is the one who shot you” but Scott cut him off again.

   “Yes! Her father! Oh my god.” Scott was visibly starting to panic. Derek would be happy.

   “No, Scott. Snap back. You okay?" Scott looked at him, a little calmer. "Hey, alright. He didn’t recognize you, right.”

   “No. N-no. I don’t think so.”

   “Does she know about him?” Stiles was seriously worried what kind of danger his best friend had gotten them -and Derek- into.

   “Oh, yeah. I don’t know. What if she does? This is gonna kill me man.”

   “Okay, just focus on lacrosse. Okay here, Scott. Take this. Take this…” He handed him his clothes and gear. “and focus on lacrosse for now, okay? That’s all you gotta do, yeah?”

   “Lacrosse.”

   “Here we go.” Stiles nervously huffed out.

BREAK

   “Let’s go,” Coach yelled. “One-on-one from up top. Jackson take a long stick today. Atta boy.” Fuck that, Stiles thought. “That’s how you do it! Greenberg, take a lap. Let’s go. Faster Greenberg! Let’s go. McCall, what are you waiting for.” And at that Scott started to jog toward Jackson. “Let’s go.” Then Scott was rammed into by Jackson almost immediately and landed hard with his back to the ground. “Hey, McCall.”

   “You sure you still want to be first line, McCall?” Jackson snarked as he climbed off of Scott.

    While The coach walked over to him Scott stood up and bent over to catch his breath. “Hey McCall. My-my grandmother can move faster than that. And she’s dead. You think you can move faster than the lifeless corpse of my dead grandmother?”

   “Yes, coach.” Stiles could smell the anger oozing from Scott.

   “I can’t hear you.”

   “Yes, coach,” Scott nearly growled, which worried Stiles. It would have worried him more if he had seen his best friend’s eyes glowing yellow, but he didn’t, and luckily no one else did either.

   “Then do it again,” the coach spit out as he got up and walked away and Scott made his way to the line of other players. “McCall’s gonna do it again! McCall’s gonna do it again! Let’s go!” Coach blew his whistle and Scott started barreling towards Jackson.

   He rammed into the other teen shoulder to shoulder. This time Jackson was on the ground and hurt far more than Scott had been before. Players surrounded Jackson and Scott fell to his hands in knees a couple of feet next to them.

   “Scott? Scott you okay?” Stiles said as he rushed to his best friend’s side.

   “Yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” he heard the coach say in the background.

   “I can’t control it, Stiles. It’s happening.”

   “What? Right here? Now?” Stiles instantly made a move to cover Scott’s head. “Come on, get up. Come on. Come on.” As they rushed off the field and towards the locker room, Stiles was too focused on Scott to notice Derek lurking by the bleachers.

   “Come on, here we go.” He said as they entered the locker room and he set Scoot down against the wall. “There. That’s it. You okay? Scott, you okay?”

   “Get away from me,” Scott roared. Stiles immediately started to backpedal away from Scott and hit his back against a set of lockers. Scott then jumped on top of the set in front of him and roared again at Stiles. Stiles ran for the lockers adjacent to him and Scott climbed up to the scaffolding following Stiles’ every move.

   Stiles moved from locker to locker making his way to the locker room door, which luckily, he left open. Just as he was about to grab the fire extinguisher by the door to calm Scott down, Stiles' best friend jumped on him and knocked him to the ground. Scott flipped the fox over and roared in his face again.

   Scott happened to leave enough room for Stiles to be able maneuver his legs so he kicked Scott off of him and sent him flying into a set of lockers in front of them. He quickly got back, grabbed the fire extinguisher, turned around and sprayed Scott with the foam from the extinguisher.

   “Stiles? W-what happened?” Scott huffed out once he was calm enough to speak. And Stiles was also pretty glad Scott didn’t seem to remember much.

   “You tried to kill me,” he said flatly and out of breath. “It’s like I told you before. It’s the anger. It’s your pulse rising. It’s a trigger.”

   “But that’s lacrosse. It’s a pretty violent sport, if you hadn’t noticed.”

   “Well, it’s going to be a lot more violent if you end up killing someone on the field,” he barked. “You can’t play Saturday. You’re going to have to get out of the game.”

   “I’m first line.”

   “Not anymore.”

BREAK

   The first thing Scott did when he got home was flop down on the edge of his bed. He was very content to lay there and wallow in his own self pity but his mom knocked at his door interrupting his sorrow.

   “Hey. Late shift again for me. But I am taking Saturday off to see your first game.”

   “No, mom, you can’t.”

   “Oh, no, I can and I will,” Melissa spat back. “Come on, one shift isn’t going to break us. Completely. Hey what’s wrong with your eyes?” Scott visibly panicked at that. “You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

   “Oh, uh, it’s nothing, just stressed.”

   “Just stress,” she questioned. “Nothing else?”

   “Homework.” Scott replied but it didn’t look like his mom heard him.

   “I mean, it’s not like you’re on drugs or anything, right?”

   “Right now?”

   “Right now?” his mom looked baffled. “I’m sorry, what do you mean “right now”? Have you ever taken drugs?”

   Kind of annoyed Scott replied, “Have you?”.

   At that Melissa tried to argue or say something back but couldn’t. “Get some sleep.”

   Instead of going to sleep like his mom requested, Scott got up and called Stiles to video chat on his computer. The call was answered by Stiles turning in his chair to shoot a toy gun at Scott through the screen.

   “What’d you find out?”

   “Well it’s bad,” Stiles said as he set the toy gun aside. “Jackson’s got a separated shoulder.”

   “Because of me?”

   “Because he’s a tool.”

   “But is he going to play?”

   “Well, they don’t know yet. Now they’re just counting on you for Saturday.” Stiles stopped and squinted at something on the screen.

   “What?”

   “It looks like there’s…”

   “It looks like what?”

   Stiles’ eyes widened in realization. “Derek’s behind you.”

   “He’s what-” Before Scott could even turn around he was yanked from his chair and pinned with his face against a wall.

   “I saw you on the field.”

   “W-w-what are you talking about?”

   “You shifted in front of them! If they find out what you are, they find out about me. About all of us. And then it’s not just the hunters after us, it’s everyone.”

   “They didn’t see anything. I… I s-swear, I-”

   “And they won’t! Because if you even try to play in that game on Saturday, I’m going to kill you myself.” Derek was about to leave but stopped and pointed at the computer where Stiles was still on call. “That goes for you to.” Stiles just held his hands up in an I’m-with-you type gesture. And as fast as he came Derek was gone.

BREAK

    While walking down the hall Stiles noticed his dad talking to the principal. He decided to listen in and go tell Scott what was said if it was anything important.

   “I want everyone under the age of 18 to be in their home by nine-thirty p.m. We’d like to institute the curfew effective immediately.” Feeling what his dad was saying was important information Stiles rushed to tell Scott. He would tell Derek too but he hadn’t seen him all day and he forgot his phone in the jeep.

   When he finally got to Scott he pulled the other teen away from his locker and to a more private area to speak.

   “What,” Scott asked like he was already annoyed by his best friend’s antics.

   “There’s a curfew because of the body.”

   “What?”

   “Unbelievable, right? My dad’s out looking for a rabid animal, while the jerk-off who actually killed the girl is out there doing who knows what.”

   “Well, you can’t exactly tell your dad the truth about Derek.”

   “No. But I- Wait you think Derek did this.”

   “Yeah, don’t you?”

   “NO! Why would he kill someone that is more than likely to be his own sister?”

   “I don’t, maybe to become the alpha.”

   “For the love of- Derek. Is. Not. The. Alpha. And I’m going to prove you wrong.”

   “And how are you going to do that exactly?”

   “By finding the other half of the body.”

   “Are you kidding?”

   “Nope. And hey you can be there to gloat if I’m wrong. Plus it looks like you’ve got bigger problems.” He turned scot around to face Lydia introducing a lacrosse player to Allison and then walked away from Scott determined to prove him wrong about Derek.

BREAK

   After school Stiles got a text from Scott saying he might know where to find the body. So his immediate reaction was to rush to Scott’s house as quickly as possible.

   “What did you find? How did you find it? Where did you find it? And, yes, I’ve had a lot of Adderall, so-” he huffed as he rushed into Scott’s bedroom.

   “I found something at Derek Hale’s.”

   “Please tell me you’re kidding?” Scott just shook his head. “What?”

   “There’s something buried there, I could smell blood.”

   “That’s awesome,” he said a little happier than he intended because maybe the blood is the evidence he can use to get suspicion off of Derek, hopefully. “I mean, that’s terrible. Whose blood?”

   “I don’t know. But when we do, your dad nails Derek for the murder. And then you help me figure out how to play lacrosse without changing. Because there’s no way I’m not playing in that game.”

   “Okay, first of all, can we not automatically assume that whatever Derek has buried out there is the other half of Laura’s body.” Scott rolled his eyes at that statement. “Second, what makes you think that I can help you learn control and not Derek.”

   “You seem to know a lot more about this stuff then I do.” Which if the stack of stolen -I’m sorry ‘borrowed’- books on the supernatural sitting on Stiles’ desk had anything to say, he was right. “Plus, I figured with all that time you’ve been spending with Derek lately-”

   “Little to no time has been spent with Derek,” Stiles tries to correct, which Scott ignores.

   “You might have picked up a few things that can help me.”

   “Well I haven’t. So, maybe, I don’t know, have Derek help you with that part.”

   “No way man. Now come on.” And like that Scott was grabbing his jacket and heading towards the front door leaving Stiles with no choice but to follow him.

BREAK

   “Okay,” Scott said when they arrived at the door to the morgue.

   “Good luck, I guess.” Stiles proceeded to walk to the waiting room and internally freak out when he saw Lydia Martin there as well. Though his massive crush for Derek pretty much removed almost all his feelings toward Lydia, some still remained that were strong enough to make his heart nearly beat out of his chest.

   “Oh, my god,” he muttered to himself as he gathered the courage to go talk to her. “Hey, Lydia. You probably don’t remember me. Um, I sit behind you in biology. Uh, anyway, I always thought that we just had this kind of connection. Unspoken, of course. Maybe, it’d be kind of cool to… get to know each other a little better.” 

   “Hold on, give me a second,” she said with a slight smile that gave Stiles hope. But that hope was completely destroyed when Lydia took out an ear phone thing. “Yeah, I didn’t get any of what you were saying. Is it worth repeating?”

   “N-no. Sorry. I’ll, I’ll just sit. You don’t care.”

   “Okay.”

   After waiting a little longer and watching a grueling and irritating conversation/make-out session between Lydia and Jackson, Scott finally returned, ripping a pamphlet about the menstrual cycle out of his hands.

   “Holy god!” Stiles said when he finally calmed down from being startled.

   “The scent was the same.”

   “Fuck. Are you sure?”

   “Yes,” he answered simply

   “So he did bury the other half of the body on his property?” Stiles let out a disappointed sigh.

   “Which means we have proof he killed the girl.”

   “It just doesn’t make sense. If he really did kill her why did he…” Stiles trailed off thinking of Derek’s reaction when his dad told him and Cora that the body was presumed to be Laura’s.

   “Why did he what?”

   “Tell me something first. Are you doing this because you supposedly want to stop Derek, or because you want to play in the game and he said we couldn’t?”

   “There are bite marks on the legs, Stiles. Bite marks.”

   “Okay,” Stiles sighed again, this time in defeat. “Then we're going to need some shovels.”

BREAK

   They watched Derek exit the old Hale house and get into his Camaro -which Stiles thought was beautiful, whether he meant the car or Derek he didn’t know. When he was far enough to where Stiles couldn’t hear Derek’s car he pulled up to the house and got out of the car with Scott, shovels in hand.

   “Wait,” Scott said, holding out his arm and stopping Stiles movement. “Something’s different.”

   “Different how?”

   “I don’t know. Let's just get this over with.” And like that they started digging up what is possibly the other half of Laura Hale’s body.

BREAK

   “This is taking way too long,” Scott complained.

   “Just keep going,” Stiles grunted, shoveling more dirt out of the whole.

   “What if he comes back.”

   “Then we get the hell out of here.”

   “What if he catches us?”

   “I have a plan for that.”

   “Which is?”

   He pondered for a moment. “You run one way. I run the other. Whoever he catches first, too bad.”

   “I hate that plan.”

   “Oh, stop, stop, stop,” Stiles almost yelled when they hit something.

   When they finally got enough dirt out of the way to see what they found it was something covered in what seemed like canvas and tied in a lot of rope in twine.

   The pair started attacking the knots. “Hurry,” Scott urged Stiles.

   “I’m trying. Did he have to tie the thing in, like, 900 knots?”

   “I’ll do it.”

   When all the knots were untied and the canvas was removed both boys yelped and Stiles jumped up so high he landed with a loud thump.

   “What the hell is that?” Stiles almost gagged at the sight before them. Instead of half of a human -well werewolf- body, there was something else.

   “It’s a wolf.”

   “Yeah, I can see that. I thought you said you smelled blood, as in human blood.”

   “I told you something was different.”

   “I know I said that this doesn’t make sense earlier… But this makes even less sense.”

   “We gotta get out of here.”

   “Yeah. Okay help me cover this up.” When jumping back into the hole and reaching for his shovel Stiles saw something that greatly peaked his interest and deeply confused him at the same time.

   Scott noticed this. “What’s wrong?” he asked with growing concern.

   “You see that flower?”

   “What about it?”

   “I think it’s wolfsbane.”

   “What’s that?” Stiles looked at his best friend in utter disbelief.

   “Uh. Haven’t you ever seen the Wolf Man?”

   “No.”

   “Lon Chaney Jr.? Claude Rains? The original, classic werewolf movie.”

   “No! What?”

   “You are so unprepared for this.” Stiles hopped out of the apparent wolf grave and made his way towards the ominously placed flower.

   He pulled the flower out of the ground figuring he could use it or study it for future research. When he uprooted the flower the roots seemed to be forming like a rope. He pulled on the wolfsbane rope and started to follow the trail it seemed to be constructing.

   The rope led him in a spiral around the grave when he finally got to the end of it. But it must have done something because the next thing he hears is Scott calling his name.

   “Holy-” Stiles looked down to see that where the wolf once lay was now half of a girl. Laura Hale

BREAK

    Derek’s work out was interrupted when he heard a knock on the door. He opened the rickety old door and was greeted by a sweaty and slightly out of breath Stiles. When the door was opened the younger teen was partially faced away from Derek and rubbing the back of his neck. Now he was facing Derek with large brown doe eyes filled with guilt and worry.

   He muttered a few small words “I am so sorry.” And as if on cue he heard a car start to pull up the dirt road to the house.

   He looked up in confusion. When the wolf turned back to Stiles the young fox was gone and in his wake was a police cruiser.

 BREAK

While Derek was put into the police cruiser, Scott was on the sidelines by Stiles’ jeep watching the whole ordeal. At almost the exact same time the cruiser door shut Stiles started making his way up the dirt road heading straight towards the vehicle.

   “Okay just so you know I do not think you did this. Even with the other half of Laura’s body buried by your house. Why exactly is that?” These were the first things out of Stiles mouth when he got in the cruiser.

   “The other day when Cora said she was going home she went looking for the rest of our sister’s body. When she found it, she called me to come help her bury it, she thought Laura should be somewhere that's close to our family. This was the best place.”

   “Okay so if Laura was a werewolf, why did we find an actual wolf. Was she a different kind of werewolf? I mean, she could turn herself into an actual wolf, and I know Scott can’t do that. Can you and Cora? Or is it just your friendly neighborhood werefox/mystery other creature.” The smell of anger coming from Derek was getting stronger, and underneath the anger was a small lingering scent of grief. “I’m going to express something before you kill me with your eyebrows. I 100% do not think you did this. I saw your reaction when my dad told you that the body was most likely Laura’s. Plus, your eyes are still blue.”

   “Why are you worried about me when Scott is who you should be focusing on. When he shifts on the field, what do you think they’re going to do. Just keep cheering him on? I can’t stop him from playing but you can.”

   “Trust me, I want to.” Then the door to the car opened, and Stiles was being dragged out of the cruiser by his father, Sheriff Stilinski.

   “There.” Noah pulled Stiles a small distance away from the police cruiser to talk to his son. “Stand. What the hell do you think you're doing?”

   “I’m just trying to help.”

   “Okay, well how about you help me understand exactly how you came across this.”

   “We were looking for Scott’s inhaler.”

   “Which he dropped when?”

   “The other night,” he answered without thinking.

   “The other night when you were out here looking here looking for the first half of the body.”

   “Yes.”

   “The night that you told me you were alone and Scott was at home.”

   “Yes.” It was in that moment he realized he fucked up. “No. Oh, crap.”

   “So you lied to me,” the sheriff concluded.

   Knowing he was cornered, Stiles did the only thing he could do, use endless amounts of sarcasm while simultaneously talking out of his own ass. “Well that depends on how you define lying.”

   “Well I define it as not telling the truth. How do you define it?”

   “Umm, reclining, your body, in a horizontal, position.”

   “Get the hell out of here.”

   “Absolutely.”

   He walked over to where Scott was standing by the hood of his jeep and told him to get into the car. While pulling out or the drive way he told Scott to look up info connecting wolfsbane to werewolf funerals. He would have done it himself but he was driving.

   They were a good few minutes into the preserve before Scott spoke. “I can’t find anything about wolfsbane being used for burial.”

   “Just keep looking. Maybe it’s like a ritual or something, like maybe they bury you as a wolf. Or maybe it’s like a special skill, you know? Like something you have to learn.” He still needed to find more info on full shifts and certain were-creature’s abilities to do so. Right now his best source would probably be Cora and he was not looking forward to that interaction.

   “I’ll put that on my to-do list, right underneath figuring out how the hell I’m playing this game tonight.” Stiles rolled his eyes at that. Of course the absolute least important thing they had to deal with was number one on Scotts list.

   Focusing back on the topic from before, the werefox continued. “Maybe it’s different for female werewolves.”

   “Okay! Stop it.”

   “Stop what?”

   “Stop saying “werewolves”! Stop enjoying this so much.” First off, whatever stick managed to find it’s way up Scott’s as needed to be removed. Second, if Stiles was enjoying anything it one hundred percent was not anything about what was going on.

   First, Scott was bitten in the woods and turned into a werewolf. Then Stiles was attacked and bitten in the woods and turned into a werefox and still not fully grasping the extent of his abilities because oh yeah, apparently he was some kind of jacked up two in one supernatural mystery creature.

   And when the first full moon rolled around Scott almost killed Allison and in turn was almost killed by hunters himself (along with Derek), while he himself was prancing along through the woods in his full shift.

   And trust him and all involved parties, those events plus what’s going on now is anything but enjoyable.

   “Are you okay?” he asked, focusing back on his best friend.

   “No! No, I’m not. I’m so far from being okay.” Yeah, that makes two of us, Stiles thought.

   “You know, you’re going to have to accept this, Scott, sooner or later.” He was being completely serious about that.

   Based on everything he had read online, and the minuscule variety of oddly detailed and specific supernatural/occult books from the schools library, as well as the small bits of information he’s obtained from Derek, the wolf (fox, coyote, whatever) was like a physical part of you. Some websites/books had described it as ‘a voice in the back of your head’ or ‘a moral compass of sorts led almost completely by pure instinct’.

   While he had yet to feel something like that, he had still been able to accept the fox part of himself fairly easily so far. If Scott was denying that part of himself now that he was a wolf, that could spell out some bad consequences in the future, especially for those closest to him. And worse it could become Scott that eventually has to be hunted down, he could take the mysterious alpha’s place.

   “I can’t,” Scott finally growled out.

   “Well, you’re going to have to.”

   “No! I can’t breathe.” Scott gripped his head and pulled it towards his lap, curling in on himself as if it would relieve the pain. Scott yelled in pain, the yell turning into an agonizing roar. “Pull over,” he managed to spit out.

   “Why? What’s happening?” The werewolf didn’t answer, instead he turned to the back and pulled Stiles’ backpack from the seats behind them. He opened the bag and found the wolfsbane rope from Laura’s grave inside.

   “You kept it?”

   “What was I supposed to do with it?”

   He actually knew exactly what he would do with it. Stiles had planned to study the flower and see if he could find ways to help him and the three other wolves (that he knew of) with threats as well as find ways said threats could use it against them. Which seeing the effect it had on Scott by him just being in the same area as the flower, would be very helpful.

   “Stop the car!” Scott yelled and flashed his eyes. He did as his best friend said and pulled over. As soon as he stopped the car he ripped his bag from Scotts hand, jumped out of the jeep and threw the backpack down the hill he parked next to.

   “Okay. Okay. We’re good, you can-” he turned around to see an empty car and the passenger side door open. “Scott. Scott!?” Knowing the other beta was probably long gone by now, Stiles hopped back in the jeep and started speeding down the road. He could get his backpack later.

   After a few minutes he slowed down, lest one of his dad’s deputies catch him speeding and tell his dad. He decided to call dispatch too.

   “Stiles, you know you can’t call the dispatch line when I’m on duty,” the familiar voice of Tara answered.

   “I just need to know if you’ve gotten any odd calls?”

   “Odd how?”

   “Uh, like an odd person or, a dog like, individual roaming the street.”

   “I’m hanging up on you know.”

   “No! Wai-wai-wai-wait.”

   “Goodbye.” The line cut out.

   Seeing as Derek was out of commission and Tara was completely useless, Stiles called the only other person equipped to help him. Cora Hale.

   The first time he called the phone went to voicemail, it did so again on the second attempt. On the third try the phone picked up after three or phone rings to a very angry Cora.

   “Who are you and what the hell do you want?” she growled.

   “Hey Cora, it’s Stiles.”

   “Stiles! How the fuck did you even get my number.”

   “I stole it off Derek’s phone when I was trying to get his number from it. Figured both numbers would be useful in the future. Anyway we have a problem and I'm not equipped to handle it alone.”

   “Oh, you mean like Derek being arrested for our sister’s murder because of you!”

   “Hey, I don’t think he did it. That was all Scotts doing, not mine. I never wanted to get him arrested. His reaction was convincing enough. Were getting off track. I was just with Scott, I had that wolfsbane rope thing and he freaked out and disappeared.”

   “Okay so?”

   “So,” he said mockingly, “he was wolfing out and if we don’t find him, what do you think will happen.”

   “Shit. Where are you?”

   “I just passed the sign for the preserve.”

   “Okay. Find somewhere to pull over, I’ll see you in fifteen minutes.”

   She was true to her word and exactly fifteen minutes after he pulled over he saw Cora running up the road in his rear-view mirror.

   “Did you seriously just run here.”

   “Yeah.” He gaped at the girl. If Stiles had done that he would probably be completely out of breath. “You going to get moving or are you planning on catching flies with that mouth.” He snapped his mouth shut and flushed slightly in embarrassment.

   “You know you probably could have made that run too, right?”

   “Really,” he said with a very skeptical voice, Cora looked at him with an ‘I’m so done with your idiotic bullshit’ look.

   “You’re a werefox.”

   “Oh right.” Cora facepalmed. “Hey I’ve been more focused on the part of me we don’t know about. Even with all the books and semi-reliable websites I’ve yet to find anything about supernaturals with purple eyes or werefoxes with a purple ring around their eyes. Also even if I could do what you just did with the running you’d still have gotten here before me.”

   “What do you mean?”

   “Well if we're going off normal wolf and fox physiology then you would have me matched. Wolves tend to max out at speeds between 31 and 37 miles per hour (50ish - 60ish km) while foxes tend to max out at around 31 miles per hour (50ish km). But if you throw coyotes in there we’d both be beat. They can run up to 35 - 43 miles per hour (56ish – 69ish km). But when it comes to hearing and sight I would have both beat. You're still stronger though, you can also smell better.”

   “That was a lot of useless information.”

   “Not really. It may not be pertinent to our current circumstances but it can still be useful in the future. If we know who has the best skills we know who to use in certain situations. So it actually is useful,” he finished and stuck his tongue out Cora before quickly turning to focus back on the road.

   They fell into a silence, it wasn’t awkward but it wasn’t exactly comfortable either.

   “Hey I meant to ask you something earlier,” Cora said, breaking the silence.

   “What?”

   “Why weren’t you affected by the wolfsbane?”

   “What do you mean?”

   “The wolfsbane, during the call you didn’t seem at all affected by the wolfsbane. I mean I heard that werefoxes tend to be more resilient when it comes to aconite, but you still should have at least been agitated in some way.”

   “I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with my mystery other half, supernaturally speaking of course.”

   “Maybe?” They went back to the comfortable-uncomfortable silence for a while until Stiles’ phone rang.

   Making sure they didn’t crash, Stiles pulled out his phone. “It’s Scott,” he told Cora and answered the phone. “What the hell man, where did you go?”

   “Allison’s.”

   “Of course you went there.”

   “Yeah and her dad kind of hit me with his car.”

   “HE HIT YOU WITH HIS CAR!”

   “It was an accident. I was in the driveway and accidently jumped in the way of his car.”

   “He has horrible instincts,” Cora commented.

   “Wait, Stiles, who’s with you.”

   “Oh so you can hear her, but you can’t hear a car coming up a driveway.”

   “Stiles. Who. Is. With. You,” Scott demanded again.

   “Cora Hale. Why?”

   “Stiles what is with you and the Hale’s. They’re dangerous. If you can’t remember we found a body buried at Derek’s house a few hours ago, a body he’s responsible for.”

   “He didn’t kill anyone,” Stiles and Cora said at the same time.

   “Stiles meet me at my house. And don’t bring her,” Scott sneered before hanging up.

   Cora turned to Stiles “So, want me there as back up,” she smiled. “Derek told me you're keeping the whole werefox/unknown creature thing from McCall.”

   “You really want to piss him off, don’t you?”

   “Considering the fact that this ‘best friend’ of yours sounds like a grade-a douche. Yes, yes I do.”

   “Fine. But if I die it’s your fault.” Cora smiled at that too.

BREAK

   “I told you not to bring her,” Scott growled when he opened the door to his bedroom.

   “Yeah well she offered to be here to make sure you don’t kill me. Plus, I assumed that this conversation is about her -or the Hales in general- so she might as well be here to hear what you have to say.”

   “How would she even stop me,” he said through gritted teeth and Stiles rolled his eyes.

   “She’s a Hale.” Scott just raised an eyebrow. Irritated, Stiles was going to elaborate but Cora cut him off.

   “He means I’m a werewolf too dumbass. A much more experienced one at that. How bout next time you use those enhanced senses that come with being a werewolfwolf.”

   “I think you should leave.

   “I think I should stay. Don’t you Stiles?” He looked down to the ground and started scratching his head, but eventually looked up and nodded. Scott looked at him in disbelief.

   “Your anger is becoming an issue Scotty. And you're clearly not great with your control. Having a born wolf around to help is a good idea, just give it a chance.” Cora was giving Scott a ‘he’s right’ look.

   “I still don’t get why you can’t help me gain control.” Cora raised an eyebrow in confusion.

   “My god Scott. For the last time, the two occasions I have hung out with Derek outside of school does not make me the master splinter of were-dom.” Cora replaced the raised eyebrow in favor of a smirk at Stiles response.

   “See she agrees with me,” Scott said pointing to Cora and her smirk that was currently behind Stiles.

   “Oh, no. I agree with Stiles on this.”

   “Then why are you smiling like that”

   “Because my brother doesn’t “hang out” with anyone.” That put a smirk on Scotts face and Stiles sat drowning in dread at the two monsters he had just released into his personal life.

   About five seconds after Scott smirked disappeared. “Don’t make me start liking you.”

   “Yeah, whatever dude.”

   “Can we get back on topic please,” Stiles begged.

   “Fine, but I’m with my brother. Until you can learn control you shouldn’t be playing lacrosse.”

   “Yeah and like I told Stiles and your brother no way.”

   “Fine. Stiles you deal with this, I'm going to go visit Derek.”

BREAK

   In the end Stiles was unable to convince Scott to skip the game. Which led him here to his last attempt to convince Scott not to play, like ten minutes before they had to be on the field.

   “You going to try and convince me not to play?” Scott said as Stiles approached him.

   “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

   “If I don’t play, I lose first line and Allison.

   “Allison’s not going anywhere. And it’s one game that you really don’t need to play.”

   “I want to play! I want to be on the team. I want to go out with Allison. I want a semi-freaking normal life. Do you get that?” Did Stiles get that?

   Of course he fucking did. He got bit too (granted Scott didn’t know that, but still). He still didn’t know what he was completely on the supernatural side of his life. So of course he got that. But he was too busy trying to keep Scott from killing people to try and do something about it.

   “I get it.” And here comes his final tactic. “Just try not to worry too much while you’re out there, okay? Or get too angry.’

   “I got it.”

   “Or stressed.”

   “Yeah, I got it.”

   “Don’t think about Allison being in the stands. Or that her father’s trying to kill you. Or that Derek’s going to kill you, or the girl you think he killed. Or that you might kill someone. If a hunter doesn’t kill you first-” He could see what he was saying was concerning Scott but clearly wasn’t going to stop him from playing. “I’m sorry, I’ll stop. Good luck,” he said and made his way to the field.

   Stiles sat on the bench like always. Scott was talking to Lydia (more like she was talking to him, which totally didn’t make Stiles a little jealous). And coach was talking to Jackson about his shoulder.

   As everyone made their way out onto the field Stiles heard his dad walking up to him. “Hey kid.”

   “Hey.”

   “So you think you’ll see any action tonight?”

   “Action? Maybe.” Then the game started.

   Jackson was the first to get the ball. He ran down the field and evaded a player that was gunning for him. The whole time Scott was running down the side of the field waving his lacrosse stick signaling he was open but Jackson refused to pass to him.

   Eventually the pearl landed on the field with no one noticing and Scott made a run for it. Right after Scott noticed the ball, Jackson noticed him running for the pearl and was hot on his tail. He pushed Scott out of the way and grabbed the ball for himself and started to run down the field again and scored.

   “That’s it, Jackson! Get fired up,” coach yelled. “Fired up!”

   Stiles looked at the bleachers and saw Lydia and Allison cheering for Jackson. Lydia bent down to grad a sign that said “We luv you Jackson”, both girls still cheering and yelling.

   “Brutal,” Stiles thought out loud when Scott saw the sign. Scott visibly got very angry at that. “Oh, this is not going to be good.”

   Stiles then turned to where Scott’s attention was focused. Jackson was talking to Danny with a small group of people gathered around them and Scott was getting angrier. Curious, Stiles tuned into the conversation.

   “Only to me,” Jackson told Danny.

   “But what if he’s open?”

   “Who’s the captain, you or me?”

   “Jackson, come on, dude, I just want to win,” Danny argued.

   “We will win.”

   “But-” Jackson cut him off.

   “What did I say? Huh? What. Did. I. Say.”

   “Don’t pass to McCall,” Danny sighed. Jackson hit Danny’s stomach then the small group of players ran back to their places on the field.

   When Scott got back to his place he slowly bent down growling and Stiles heard the ref ask if Scott was okay, he just nodded slowly in response. The person behind Scott must have heard the growling too because he backed away from him in fear.

   When he heard Allison’s dad behind him he knew Scott was fucked. “Which one is Scott again?” Argent asked his daughter.

   “Number 11.” Lydia, who was sitting next to Allison, responded. “Otherwise known as the only one who hasn’t caught a single ball this entire game.”

   “I hope he’s okay,” Allison commented.

   “I hope we’re okay. We need to win this.” Lydia retrieved the sign from earlier and turned it over to the other side where it read “Jackson is #1!!”. “Allison. A little help here?” Reluctantly Allison stood and helped hold the sign. When Scott saw Allison holding the sign his anger was almost the only thing Stiles could smell.

   The game started again, this time the ball was flung into the air. Scotts head immediately snapped to attention and he ran for the ball like a dog trying to catch a stick (ha, puns). There was a group of players primarily from the other team surrounding where the ball was supposed to land. When Scott reached the group of players he jumped and used the shoulder of someone on the opposing team to push him higher and catch the ball. When he hit the ground he booked it down the field dodging and weaving around other players until he got to the goal and scored.

   Everyone jumped out of their seats and cheered. “Yes!” Stiles yelled. “That’s what… What! What!”

   Coach started walking down the edge of the field and Stiles followed. “McCall! Pass to McCall! To McCall” coach yelled continually.

   The game started again but this time the other team ended up with the ball. They passed the ball to another teammate who was running to the goal on the other team’s side when they turned around to start heading toward beacon hill’s goal, they were met with a growling Scott. The player, coincidently the same one from earlier, saw Scott’s fangs and yellow glowing eyes and was understandably scared. Not wanting to get eaten the player passed Scott the pearl and moved out of his way.

   “Did the opposing team just deliberately pass us the ball?” Coach asked Stiles who, because of nerves, was chewing on one of the fingers of his glove.

   “Yes. I believe so, coach”

   “Interesting.”

   Running down the field and dodging more players from the other team Scott started to head towards the goal. When he got to the goal he threw the ball, when the goalie tried to catch the ball it ripped through the net of the stick and into the goal.

   “Yes! Yes!” Stiles and coach started yelling in union. “There you go McCall!” coach yelled, but then the ref started to argue with him. “What? The ball’s in the net.”

   “The ball’s in the net,” Stiles backed up.

   “That’s the goal of the game, is get the ball in the net.”

   “We got it.”

   “We got it,” Coach said, stealing the ref’s whistle and starting the game himself.

   Stiles sat back down on the bench and tuned back into the game, specifically to where Jackson was. “Dude, what the hell’s up with your teammate man? What’s he on?” the person in front of Jackson asked.

   “I don’t know. Yet.” Great, Stiles thought. Another problem for me to fix.

   The ref blew the whistle and Jackson caught the ball and tossed it to Scott. He started to move up the field but was blocked by a bunch of other players before he could make it close enough to the net to score.

   Stiles saw that the shift was taking hold, heard it to because of the growls Scott was producing. “No, Scott, no, no,” he muttered to himself.

   More players started to surround Scott and there was less than twenty second left in the game.

   “Come on, come on, come on,” Melissa kept repeating in her seat.

   “You can do it, Scott. You can do it,” Allison whispered.

   Scott must have heard what she said because he was able to focus for those last few seconds. The players surrounding Scott started to move in on the wolf but before they could do anything Scott threw the ball into the net, scoring the winning goal.

   “Yes! Yes! Oh, my God!” Stiles yelled, jumping from his seat.

   Where Scott was standing he tore his glove off revealing the claws hidden under it. He ran towards the locker room trying to find a place to hide. Stiles was going to follow Scott but he saw his dad ending what looked like a serious talk on the phone.

   “Dad, what’s wrong?” The sheriff held out a finger telling him to wait a minute. That’s when he heard some, in his opinion, wonderful news and finally ran to go get Scott.

   When he got to the locker-room Stiles found his best friend and Allison Argent kissing in the showers. He awkwardly and quietly hid behind the lockers making sure not to look.

   “I got to get back to my dad,” Allison said before leaving. “Hi, Stiles,” she said awkwardly as she walked by him.

   “Hey, yeah.”

   “I kissed her,” Scott told Stiles.

   “I saw that.”

   “She kissed me.”

   “Saw that too. That’s pretty good, huh?”

   “I-I-I don’t know how, but I controlled it. I pulled it back. Maybe I can do this. Maybe it’s not that bad.” We can only hope, Stiles thought.

   “Yeah, heh,” Stiles started to scratch his head. “We’ll talk later, then.”

   Scott looked at him with confusion. “What?”

   “The, uh, medical examiner looked at the other half of the body we found.”

   “And-”

   “Well I’ll keep it simple.” The more Stiles spoke the happier he got. “Medical examiner determines killer of girl to be animal, not human. Derek’s human, not animal. Derek not killer. Derek let out of jail.” There was a smile so big on his face it hurt.

   “Are you kidding?”

   “And here’s a bigger kick in your ass. My dad was able to get a final, more accurate, I.D. of the girl. Turns out it really is Laura.”

   “Laura?”

   “Laura Hale. Derek’s sister.”

Chapter Text

Scott and Allison ran out the doors of the school and into the bus lot. They walked in between two of the busses, Scott pulling Allison behind him.

   “Where are you taking me,” she laughed.

   “Somewhere where we can be alone.”

   “We are alone.”

   “Somewhere where we can be more alone,” he replied, the insinuation obviously not going unnoticed by Allison. He opened the door to the bus on their left and pulled Allison in with him. “Come on.”

   They jog slightly down the aisle of seats before settling in the back of the bus. Sitting in two seats across from each other the pair look at each other longingly until Scott finally gives in and slowly rises from his seat. He bends over Allison slowly leaning down to kiss her, which she gladly returns.

   They continue like this, Scott slowly unbuttoning Allison’s shirt. As he starts to make his way down Allison’s neck Scott grips the seat next to them, claws slowly protruding from his fingertips and tearing at the upholstery. With the wolf inside slowly gaining control, Scott stops kissing his girlfriend and gets off the seat. He bends over to try and control his breathing and push down the wolf, leaning on two other seats for support.

   “What’s wrong?” she asks breathlessly, worry slowly trickling into her voice.

   “Get away,” he warns her.

   “Scott?”

   Unable to control the monster within, Scott's fangs slowly start to drop. His nose becomes more canine-like in nature and his ears start to grow and come to a point. Hair is growing on the sides of his face and his eyes are now glowing a haunting yellow.

   “Scott?” Allison asks again.

   “Get away from me.” Scott slowly lifts his head and meets Allison’s concerned -and now fearful- gaze. To her, the yellow eyes are like daggers slowly trying to tear her apart.

   Knowing she’s going to fall victim to the beast that her boyfriend has become, Allison started to back up to the front of the bus Scott following not too far behind her. When a growl tears its way out of Scott’s throat Allison turns around and starts to run down the aisle of seats.

   She doesn’t make it far before Scott grabs her by the ankle and yanks her down to the floor. As Scott drags a screaming and crying Allison back down the aisle she grabs at every leg and metal bar of the seats she can. When Scott nears the end of the aisle Allison turns onto her back and kicks Scott off with her high-heeled boot and he slams into the emergency exit door.  She runs to the front of the bus and to the school bus door. When she turns for the steps she trips and falls down the short flight of stairs slamming into the door and injuring herself even more in the process.

   Allison tries to open the door but it refused to move. She scrambles up the steps and sees Scott rip a chair out of the metal floor and throw it towards the front of the bus. Before the seat reaches the front of the bus Allison is able to pull on the lever next to the driver's seat which opens a slight crack in the door.

   Just when the chair was about to hit her Allison scrambled down the steps and back to the bus door. The crack was just wide enough for her to slip her fingers through. As she struggled to open the door Allison could hear Scott’s low growl coming closer terrifying her even more.

   Allison managed to pry the door open a few inches when Scott’s clawed hand reached around behind her covering her mouth and her screams. As he dragged her back into the bus the door slammed shut trapping her inside.

BREAK

   “So you killed her?” Stiles commented after Scott finished the slightly disturbing tale that was his dream.

   “I don’t know. I just woke up. And I was sweating like crazy, and I couldn’t breathe. I’ve never had a dream where I woke up like that before.”

   “Really?” Stiles asked only in half surprise. “I have. Usually ends a little differently.” His mind totally didn’t go to a certain dark-haired werewolf.

   “A, I meant I’ve never had a dream that felt that real, and B, never give me that much detail about you in bed again.”

   “Noted. Let me take a guess here-”

   “No, I know, you think it has something to do with me going out with Allison tomorrow, like I’m gonna lose control and rip her throat out.”

   “No, of course not.” When seeing the look of total disbelief on his friend’s face he continued. “Yeah, that’s totally it. Hey, come on, it’s gonna be fine, all right? Personally, I think you’re handling this pretty freakin’ amazingly. You know, it’s not like there’s a lycanthropy for beginners class you can take. Buuuutt, I’m pretty sure I know a teacher,” he suggested, not so subtlety hinting to-

   “Who, Derek? You forgetting the part where we got him tossed in jail?”

   “That was you. Mostly.”

   “I still don’t get why you can’t teach me.”

   “Oh my- How many times do I have to tell you? I am nowhere near qualified enough to teach you control.”

   “Yeah, I know, but chasing her dragging her to the back of the bus, it felt so real.”

   “How real?”

   “Like it actually happened.” They opened the doors to the bus lot (it was Stiles' idea to go there and try to soothe Scott’s worries) to a gruesome scene.

   “I think it did.”

   One of the back doors of a bus was torn open and slightly bent with only one hinge fully connected. The outside of the bus, the back seats, and the broken door were covered in bloody smears and handprints, and claw marks.

   Scott rushed back into the school, flowing with the smell of grief, concern, and guilt. Stiles quickly took a picture of the scene and ran after the young wolf.

   “She’s probably fine,” Stiles tried to reassure his friend when he caught up to him.

   “She’s not answering my texts, Stiles.”

   “It could just be a coincidence, all right? A seriously amazing coincidence.”

   “Just help me find her,” Scoot said before rushing ahead.

   Stiles let out a long sigh and shook his head. While he was immensely happy for his best friend Stiles also found it extremely ridiculous how fast he had fallen for Allison. Not to mention the fact that she’s an Argent and could quite possibly kill both him and Scott. And if she did happen to be dead would he feel all that bad? He had no clue. He would feel bad for his friend of course, but not the fact that it would also eliminate a possible threat to Scott (as well as to himself and the remaining Hales).

   Scratch that. If Allison died at the hands of a werewolf her entire (hunter) family would be breaking down the front doors of every supernatural creature that lived in Beacon Hills -and possibly beyond- and then proceed kill them all. So Stiles would much prefer that Allison remained alive in this particular situation lest Mr. Argent shows up at his house with a crossbow.

   Pulling out his phone, Stiles sent Derek the picture of the bus lot.

User: Don’t take this the wrong way but do you know anything about this?

Murder-brows: Who is this?

User: Stiles. Who else would bother texting such a grump?

Murder-brows: How’d you even get my number?

User: Borrowed your phone and copied down your and Cora’s numbers just in case I needed them. Like, now, for instance.

Murder-brows: Steal my phone again and I’ll kill you.

User: Nice try big guy. But I’m pretty sure you have to do the whole ‘Swiper no swipey’ thing before I take the item I want to swipe. Now you gonna answer my question, or...

Murder-brows: Possibly. Meet me at my old house after school. And bring Scott.

User: I’ll do my best on the Scott front but I make no promises.

   While a little put off by how vague Derek was, Stiles still trusted the guy. He had no clue why given the several reasons he shouldn’t, but he did. And while the massive crush he has on the guy could be a factor, he doesn’t think that’s it.

   Stiles was pulled out of his thoughts when a loud screech came from the intercoms. He really hated the fact that foxes -and most likely werefoxes- had superior hearing to wolves because OW!

   “Attention, students, this is your principal. I know you’re all wondering about the incident that occurred last night to one of our busses. While the police work to determine what happened, classes will proceed as scheduled.” At that, a loud groan was let out by several students in the halls. “Thank you.”

    Not long after that Stiles got a text from Scott stating that he found Allison and he’d see him in Harris’s class. He rolled his eyes at the message hating his friend for his recent behavior. What really irked him was it was all over some girl he barely knew. But hey there wasn’t much he could do, when Scott was determined to get something there was almost no stopping him.

BREAK

   A minute or two after Stiles got to Harris’ class Scott came in and took the seat in front of him. When Harris started writing on the board Scott turned around to talk to him.

   “Mabey it was my blood on the door,” Scott suggested.

   “Could have been animal blood,” responded Stiles. “You know, maybe you caught a rabbit or something.”

   “And did what?”

   “Ate it.” Scott looked completely disgusted at the notion.

   “Raw?”

   “No you stopped to bake it in a little werewolf oven,” Stiles commented, neither were-creature realizing Harris had stopped writing and was now focused on them.

   “I don’t know, you’re the one who can’t remember anything.”

   “Mr. Stilinski,” Harris finally interrupted, “if that’s your idea of a hushed whisper, you might want to pull the headphones out every once in a while.” Stiles scoffed at that. “I think you and Mr. McCall would benefit from a little distance, yes?”

   “No.” Harris, the dick that he is, ignored him. Pointing to a seat at the back for Stiles and one at the front for Scott.

   “Let me know if the separation anxiety gets to be too much.” Stiles scoffed again.

   Almost immediately after Scott sat down the girl next to him (Harley?) sprang from her seat. “Hey, I think they found something.” When she said that everyone else in the class got up from their seats as well.

   On the other side of the window, two EMTs, as well as two deputies, were jogging with a stretcher in between them on the way to an open ambulance. “That’s not a rabbit,'' Scott commented when he saw a person on the stretcher.

   As the EMTs were about to load the stretcher into the ambulance a middle-aged man covered in blood and scratches shot up and started screaming. Several students shrieked and jumped away from the window.

   “Okay,” Stiles breathed out, slightly startled. “This is good, this is good,” he reassured Scott who was slowly backing away from the window. “He got up, he’s not dead. Dead guys can’t do that.”

   “Stiles, I did that.”

BREAK

   “But dreams aren’t memories,” Stiles told Scott on their way to their usual lunch table.

   “Then it wasn’t a dream. Something happened last night, and I can’t remember what.”

   “Maybe Derek could help you. You know, maybe there’s some kind of werewolf thing that can help you remember what happened last night.”

   “What makes you so sure that Derek even has all the answers?”

   “Because,” Stiles said calmly and quietly, “during the full moon he wasn’t changed. He was in total control. While you were running around in the middle of the night possibly attacking some totally innocent guy.”

   “We don’t know that,” Scott responded, not sounding totally convinced himself.

   “We don’t not know it. You can’t go out with Allison, Scott. You have to cancel.”

   “No, I’m not canceling, okay? I can’t just cancel my entire life. We’ll figure it out.”

   “Figure what out?” Lydia said as she placed her tray down and sat to Scott’s left.

   “Just, uh, homework,” Scott stuttered.

   “Yeah,” Stiles assured. “Why is she sitting with us?” he whispered to his equally confused friend. Scott just shrugged his shoulders and mouthed the words ‘I don’t know’.

   Now Allison was sitting to Scott’s right and some other girl sat down on Stiles’ left. Stiles smiled slightly and nodded to said girl who just gave him a tight smile in return and focused on her food. He then turned to see Danny -Jackson’s best friend- now sitting to his right and nodded to him as well. Danny had pretty much the same reaction as the girl, if not worse.

   Great job Stiles, you just struck out on both teams, he thought to himself as he slid down further into his seat wanting to hide from the world.

   “Get up,” Jackson told the kid sitting at the end of the table.

   “How come you never ask Danny to get up?”

   “Because I don’t stare at his girlfriend’s coin slot.” The kid finally decided to move with Jackson slightly pushing him out of the chair and sitting down. “So I hear they’re saying it’s some kind of animal attack.” This brought everyone to start thinking about last night’s ‘incident’. “Probably a cougar.”

   “I heard mountain lion,” Jackson said to his best friend.

   “A cougar is a mountain lion,” Lydia said, kind of harshly. “Isn’t it?” she added in a ditzy voice at her boyfriend’s confused expression.

   “Who cares? The guy’s probably some homeless tweaker who’s gonna die anyway.”

   “Actually, I just found out who it is. Check it out.” Stiles held his phone out and angled it so everyone at the table could see the video on the accident.

   “The Sheriff’s Department won’t speculate on details of the incident but confirmed the victim, Garrison Meyers,” A Picture of the man popped up on the screen of the phone. “did survive the attack. Meyers was taken to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition.”

   “I-I know this guy,” Scott said when the video finished playing.

   “You do?” Allison asked.

   “Yeah, when I used to take the bus, back when I lived with my dad. He was the driver.” Stiles leaned back in his seat taking in the new information. Why would Scott attack some bus driver? And how was Derek so clearly involved in all of this.

   “Can we talk about something a bit more fun, please?” Lydia interrupted. “Like, oh, where are we going tomorrow night?” She was now looking expectantly at Scott and Allison. “You said, you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow night, right.”

   “Um, we were thinking of what we were going to do,” Allison hesitantly told her. Stiles looked between Allison, Scott, Lydia, and Jackson knowing that this probably wasn’t going to end well for his best friend.

   “Well, I am not sitting at home watching lacrosse videos, so if the four of us are hanging out, we are doing something fun."

   Scott turned to Allison. “H-Hanging out? Like the four of us?” Stiles had to put his hand over his mouth to stop from making any sort of comment about how Scott should definitely not do that. “Do you wanna hang out, like us and… them?”

   “Yeah, I guess. Sounds fun.”

   “You know what else sounds fun? Stabbing myself in the face with this fork,” Jackson snarked, earning a light smack on the arm from Lydia and an annoyed and angry eye roll from Stiles.

   “How about bowling?” Lydia suggested. “You love to bowl.” Stiles was sitting there fuming, crunching on fries to keep himself from flipping out in place of his best friend. If Scott was insistent on going to go on a date with Allison he could at least do it right.

   “Yeah, with actual competition.”

   “How do you know we're not actual competition?” Allison confidently questioned. “You can bowl right?” she said, turning back to Scott.

   “Sort of.”

   “Is it ‘sort of’ or yes?” Jackson questions.

   “Yes. In fact, I’m a great bowler.”

BREAK

   “You’re a terrible bowler,” Stiles told Scott as they were walking down the hall.

   “I know! I’m such an idiot.”

   “God it was like watching a car wreck. I mean, first, it turned into the whole group date thing. And then out of nowhere comes that phrase.”

   “Hang out,” Scott finishes.

   “You don’t hang out with hot girls, okay? It’s like death. Once it’s hanging out, you might as well be her gay best friend. You and Danny can start hanging out.”

   Not too far ahead of them Stiles notices Cora finishing up at her locker and decides he wants to check in with her. When they pass her he grabs the back of her book bag and starts dragging her behind him and Scott. Surprisingly once she notices it's Stiles who grabbed her she stops complaining and threatening death to whoever just grabbed her.

   “How is this happening? I either killed a guy or I didn’t.”

   “I don’t think Danny likes me very much,” Stiles said, getting away from the original topic.

   “I ask Allison on a date and now we're hanging out.” At that Cora rolls her eyes while still allowing herself to be dragged around by Stiles for some reason.

   “Am I not attractive to gay guys?”

   “I make first line, and the captain wants to destroy me, and now… Now I’m gonna be late for work.”

   “Wait, Scott, you didn’t… Am I attractive to gay guys… You didn’t answer my question,” Stiles manages as Scott rushes away.

   “How did I get roped into that conversation?” Stiles jumped at Cora’s voice releasing a totally manly yelp. “Did you forget I was here?”

   “Uh, what, noo,” Stiles said in an unconvincing voice.

   “You forget I can hear when you’re lying. Anyway, why am I here?”

   “Um, I don’t know anymore. I think I was going to ask you something but I’m totally blanking on what it was.”

    “Okay, then I’m going to go now.” As she was walking away she turned around at the last second. “And, hey, Stiles.”

   “Yeah?”

   “Don’t worry about gay guys liking you. I know a pansexual guy who’s very interested.” Stiles' eyes went wide and he was going to ask who but then she was gone too.

BREAK

   Parking the jeep near the front of the preserve Stiles started to make his way to the old Hale house. Being slightly paranoid from the last time he was in these woods alone, he kept looking around the trees for red eyes. Almost every time he heard a sound made by something other than himself Stiles sped up a little to try and get to the house quicker.

   When the burnt-out husk of the Hale Mansion finally came into view Stiles breathed out a small sigh of relief. The house still had that weird creepy, yet beautiful kind of feel to it. Though it had only been about a week or so since he was last here so he didn’t really expect anything to be different.

   When he got closer to the house he noticed a pile of burned wood and other items in a pile outside of the old house. Is he redecorating, Stiles thought to himself.

   Walking up the porch he knocked on the door which opened with a loud screech as soon as his fist made contact with the wood. “Well, great horror movie cliché. Hey Derek, you in here buddy?”

   “Where’s Scott?” Derek’s voice echoed through the entire house making it almost impossible to pinpoint where it was coming from.

   “Dude, where are you?”

   “Use your senses to find me. Focus on my heartbeat and follow it. If it works better, try and find my scent and follow that.” Following Derek’s instructions, Stiles closed his eyes and tried to focus on the older teen's heartbeat and/or scent.

   He heard his heartbeat before he found his scent. The sound of the heart led him up the stairs and to the second floor of the home, if it could be called that anyway. As he got closer to Derek he was able to identify his scent. At first, it was a bit hard to discern from the anger, grief, and guilt that seemed to be constantly radiating from the young ‘were. But when Stiles did his heart skipped a beat at the smell of rain, sandalwood, leather, and home. If only he knew why Derek smelled like home.

   His quest to find Derek led Stiles to a mostly clean room that appeared to have been a bedroom at one point. Probably Derek’s considering the teen was currently staring out the bedroom window. In the corner of the room opposite the window was a full-sized bed with sheets and a folded comforter and a duffle bag -probably filled with clothes- on top of it.

   “Do you and Cora actually live here or something. Which I have to tell you, super dangerous and unsanitary dude.”

   “No, we live somewhere else. I just spend a lot of time here. Sometimes I'll stay the night. And don't call me dude.”

   “Oh, then where do you two actually live?” Stiles asked, choosing to ignore Derek's last sentence.

   “None of your business.” He punctuated the end of his sentence with a growl. He didn’t fully understand why Derek felt the need to keep where he and Cora truly lived a secret but considering what happened to his last home he wasn’t going to pester him on it either. Sitting down on the bed with a huff Stiles let silence consume the room.

   Getting tired of Derek staring out of his (Stiles just realized) broken bedroom window like every typical angst-ridden teen on the planet Stiles decided to talk. “Sorry I couldn’t get Scott to come. He had to get to work. I’ll see if he’ll come over when his shift is done”

   “Why don’t you have a job?”

   “I had one this summer. The rest of the year I prefer to focus on school. Plus most of what I made last summer went to fixing up Roscoe.” Derek looked over his shoulder and gave Stiles a raised eyebrow. “The jeep,” he said knowing that reaction well enough.

   “Shit,” Derek hissed.

   “What?” Stiles' question was answered when he heard a car in the distance coming down the driveway. “Fuck. Who is it?”

   “A cop. He has a dog. Stay quiet, I’m going to scare them away.”

   “How the hell are you going to do that.”

   “Just shut up and let me handle this.” Out the window, he could see a deputy climbing out of a police cruiser and a dog with its head sticking out of a half-open window. Derek could tell from the window that the house creeped out the officer.

   “It looks pretty deserted, dispatch. Did you want me to take a look inside?” the man said into the radio.

   “Unit 16, it’s county property. Order’s to make sure it’s vacant.”

   “I don’t… I don’t think anyone’s home.”

   “For the love of god, 16, go inside and see if anyone’s in there.”

   “Copy that.” As the man moved closer to the house the dog in the cruiser barked, startling the cop. “Don’t do that.” The man got even closer to the house eyeing the outside when he reached the porch steps. Derek focused his attention on the K-9 in the car, flashing his eyes and making the dog start barking even more. As the dog’s barks turned more frantic and growls and whines also started to come from the animal the cop became more frightened.

   The dog was now trying to squeeze its way out of the partially open window. With the man’s fear slowly taking over he finally relented and rushed back to his cruiser. When 16 finally pulled away he revealed Scott slowly walking up to the house.

   “Well looks like you won’t have to get Scott to come over,” Derek told a relieved-looking Stiles who sat up with a changed expression at the words.

   “What? Why?”

   “He’s here.”

   “What?!”

   “Come on. This might go easier with you out there with me.” Without even looking to see if Stiles was following Derek made his way out of the room.

   “I know you can hear me,” Scott said from outside. “I need your help.”

   “Oh now he listens to my advice,” Stiles mutters on his way out of the room.

   Before he even makes it to the stairs Derek is outside talking to Scott. “Okay.” Scott started. “I know I was part of getting you arrested and that we basically announced you being here to the hunters.”

   “Actually, Scott, that was all you.” Stiles interrupted, finally stepping outside.

   “Stiles? What are you doing here?”

   Before Stiles could answer his friend's question Derek spoke up. “Don’t pay attention to him right now. Finish what you were going to say.” Stiles Stuck his tongue out at Derek in retaliation but the other teen just ignored him.

   “Um, o-okay. I also don’t know what happened to your sister. But I think I did something last night.” The entire time he was talking Scott kept glancing over to Stiles. “I had a dream about someone, but someone else got hurt.”

   “Allison,” Stiles said into a fake cough. He grinned smugly when Scott shot him a glare.

   “Anyway, it turns out that part of the dream might have actually happened.”

   “You think you attacked the bus driver.”

   “Did you see what I did last night?”

   “No. He told me.” He nodded his head to Stiles whose grin turned childlike with pride.

   “Can you at least tell me the truth? Am I gonna hurt someone?”

   “Yes,” Derek deadpanned.

   “Could I kill someone?”

   “Yes,” he repeated.

   “Am I going to kill someone?”

   “Probably.” Stiles facepalmed at that, he really didn’t like Derek’s tactics. And Scott at hearing Derek’s news leaned against a pillar holding up the roof above the porch. “Look, I can show you how to remember.” Stiles raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I can show you how to control the shift,” Derek discreetly glanced at Stiles, “even on a full moon. But it’s not going to come for free.”

   “What do you want?”

   “You’ll find out. But for now, I’m going to give you what you want. Go back to the bus,” he instructed. “Go inside. See it, feel it. Let your senses, your sight, smell, touch, let them remember for you.”

   “That’s it? Just go back?”

   “Do you want to know what happened?”

   “I just want to know if I hurt him.” Just by the look on the teen’s face, Stiles could tell Scott was being sincere. That he was afraid of becoming a monster, like the dark things the media -and most hunters probably- viewed/portrayed them as.

   “No, you don’t. You want to know if you’ll hurt her.” Of course, it came back to Allison. The girl that could very possibly get them all killed.

   “I’ll go tonight,” Scott said before walking away.

   “I’ll go with him,” Stiles promised, directing Derek’s attention to himself. “Make sure he doesn’t screw up and get caught.” Derek huffed a laugh, looking down.

   “Well, I’ll see you later.” Derek looked straight into Stiles’ honey brown eyes, sucking in a breath.

   “Yeah,” Stiles responded, not making any move to leave.

   “Stiles, let’s go,” they heard Scott yell, ruining the pair's peaceful moment.

   Shaking his head Stiles made his way off the porch and started following his asshole of a friend.

   “And Stiles,” Derek called, causing the young fox to turn around and start walking backward. “Be careful.”

   “Always,” Stiles smiled before turning back around and heading for the jeep.

BREAK

"So what were you doing with Derek earlier,” Scott asked as Stiles pulled up to the chain-link fence that led to the bus lot. Scott had been relentless earlier when they were on their way back to Stiles' house. No matter how many times Stiles told him the reason Scott always deemed it unacceptable and would ask again five to twenty minutes later.

   Stiles huffed out a very loud, very long sigh. “As I have told you several times, Scotty. I was telling him about your little predicament here. Now get out and go ‘use your senses,’” he finished in his best Derek impression.

   “Sure dude,” Scott said before getting out of the jeep and slamming the door, and causing Stiles to growl at him for hurting his baby. Which shocked both him and Scott momentarily before they refocused on the task at hand so Stiles got out of the jeep and followed his friend.

   When Scott noticed Stiles following he stopped him. “Hey, no, just me. Someone needs to keep watch.”

   “How come I’m always the guy keeping watch?” he asked before starting to climb the fence only to be stopped by Scott.

   “Because there’s only two of us.”

   “Okay, why’s it starting to feel like you’re Batman and I’m Robin?” Stiles really didn’t want to be Robin. Batman has cycled through four or five Robins already and he’s pretty sure half, if not all of them, died, at least once in their several confusing lifetimes. Plus Batman is way cooler than Robin. Don’t get him wrong Stiles thinks that Robin has several great qualities as a character- Listen point is he prefers not to be a Robin as expressed by him telling Scott “I don’t want to be robin all the time.”

   “Nobody’s Batman and Robin any of the time.” Now that just disappointed him even more.

   “Not even some of the time?”

   “Just stay here.”

   “Oh, my god! Fiiinne!!!” he said finally relenting and heading back to the jeep as Scott scaled the fence.

    Not wanting to sit there staring at the bus lot the whole time Sties decided to text Derek instead.

User: So how does this whole letting Scott’s senses guide him thing work anyway? And am I also going to have to pay you back for helping me learn control to, or…

Murder-brows: Scott uses his sense to draw out his feelings and memories about that night. And I haven’t decided.

User: What the hell does that mean?

   Three little dots appeared on the screen before disappearing again, meaning Derek probably wasn’t going to respond to his question.

   Putting his phone away Stiles looked back at the bus lot just in time to see a security guard with a flashlight walking toward the bus. Not knowing what else to do Stiles honked his horn to warn Scott so they could get out of there and hopefully not get caught in the process. As soon as Scott was in the jeep, after pulling some very unnecessary parkour moves, Stiles pulled away from the school and drove away as fast as Roscoe could take them.

   “Did it work? Did you remember?” Stiles asked as soon as they were in the clear.

   “Yeah, I was there last night. And the blood, a lot of it was mine.”

   “So you did attack him?”

   “No. I saw glowing eyes in the bus, but they weren’t mine.” What color were they, Stiles wondered. “It was Derek.” While he didn’t believe that, it did make Stiles slightly suspicious of the other werewolf. He seemed to end up in these kinds of situations a lot.

   “What about the driver?” Stiles asked.

   “I think I was actually trying to protect him.”

   “Okay, let’s say Derek is behind this.” At that Scott got a slightly hopeful look in his eye that Stiles believed him about Derek being bad for once. “I’m not saying he did, I’m saying if. If he did this, why would he help you remember that he attacked the driver?”

   “Yeah, that wouldn’t make sense would it.” Stiles just shook his head.

   “Maybe it’s a pack thing,” Stiles suggested.

   “What do you mean?”

   “Like an initiation. You do the kill together or, something.”

   “Because ripping someone’s throat out is a real bonding experience?”

   “Well, at least we know you didn’t do it, which means you’re not a killer. And it also means…”

   “I can go out with Allison,” Scott interrupted and Stiles was starting to hate their relationship even more.

   “I was going to say it means, you won’t kill me.” he paused before adding, “Or anyone else, hopefully.”

   “Oh yeah. That, too.” Stiles was really resisting the urge to claw his best friend’s face off. Maybe he could anyway, it should heal if he did.

   “Sadly this also adds Derek and possibly Cora to the suspect list.”

   “Yeah, sadly,” Scott said sarcastically.

   “For involvement, Scott. You’re forgetting that it would still make zero sense if Derek wanted you to remember that he was the one who did the maiming.”

   “Whatever.”

BREAK

Scott was currently on his double date with Allison, Lydia, and Jackson, leaving Stiles to sit at home alone and fester with the ideas in his own mind. Which was never a good thing. So wanting to know if he really did have anything to do with attacking Myers, Stiles decided to go pay Derek a visit.

   Since he didn’t know where Derek and Cora actually lived, Stiles had to go to the old Hale house and just hope that the brooding teenager was there. When he pulled up to the house he regretted making the trip at night. With no stars and the moon being blocked by trees it made the home look about ten times creepier. Taking a deep breath Stiles got out of the Jeep and made his way to the porch.

   “Derek,” Stiles called out. “Derek are you here? I need to talk to you. Derek!” Not getting a reply he pushed the front door open and of course, it had to make noise. “Derek! You here dude?” Still no reply. “I am so gonna regret this,” he said to himself before deciding to go inside the house.

   Before his foot even hit the ground, someone spoke. “What do you want?”

   “HOLY MOTHER FORKING SHIRT BALLS!!!!” Stiles yelled, almost jumping out of his skin at the sound of Derek’s voice, who was currently coming up the left side of the porch. “You need to get a bell, man!”

   “Next time use your ears,” Derek deadpanned.

   “Oh, I’m sure I would have heard you if you wanted me to.” Derek lifted his eyebrows as if conceding to his point.

   “So why are you here?”

   “As I said, we need to talk.” Derek’s next eyebrow lift communicated the word ‘about’ perfectly. “Yesterday, when Scott did the whole memory thing… He-he said you were there with him that night.”

   “You think I attacked the bus driver.” Although his face revealed nothing Stiles could smell a tinge of hurt in Derek’s scent.

   “What? N-No. I just want to know if what he said was true. Were you really there.”

   “No.” Stiles tuned into Derek’s heartbeat. “No, I wasn’t there.” He was telling the truth, there was no blip or acceleration in his heartbeat, he wasn’t lying. At that stiles breathed out a sigh of relief.

   “Why does Scott think I was there?” Derek asked.

   “He said he saw glowing eyes. Ones that weren’t his. He probably assumed they were yours.” At that, the older teen seemed to decide something.

   “Come on,” Derek told him before making his way around the house, leaving Stiles no choice but to follow.

   “Where are we going?” Stiles could see the Camaro Derek typically drove not too far behind the house.

   “To see Myers. Try and find out why the Alpha attacked him.” Stiles briefly remembered Derek saying something about an alpha during his and Cora’s first ‘interaction’.

   “And I’m needed for this, why exactly?”

   “You’re smart and your dad’s the sheriff. Figured you might be able to see something I can’t. The smell of hospitals makes it hard to get a read on people’s emotions.” Derek said as he got in the car. Stiles nodded in agreement before opening the passenger door and getting in too.

BREAK

   “What are we doing?” Stiles asked as Derek pulled into a gas station. Which he was happy about because he really needed to pee.

   “Gas.”

   “Cool. I’m gonna go use the bathroom,” Stiles said before rushing into the convenience store attached to the gas station.

   When Stiles was done with the bathroom and heading back towards the car he saw something that greatly unnerved him. Chris Argent in front of Derek as he finished pumping gas and two other men (hunters no doubt) leaning on another car behind him. Wanting to make sure Derek wasn’t in any immediate danger, Stiles listened in to what was happening when Chris started talking.

   “Nice ride. Black cars, though. Very hard to keep clean.” As if trying to sell his little act to any possible passerby Chris started to rub at the hood of the Camaro. “I would definitely suggest a little more maintenance.” Grabbing a squeegee that the gas station happened to provide, Argent started to clean the windshield of Derek’s car. Which weird. “If you have something this nice, you wanna take care of it, right? Personally, I’m very protective of the things I love. That’s something I learned from my family. You don’t have much of that these days. Do you?” Chris seemed to be gauging Derek’s reaction, which Stiles couldn’t see. But he seemed to remain calm given the circumstances and Chris put back the squeegee. “There we go. You can actually look through your windshield now. See how that makes everything so much clearer?”

   “You forgot to check the oil,” Derek said as Argent started to walk back to his own car. And Stiles was momentarily proud of the older teenager for the snarky comment.

   “Check the man’s oil.” At Chris’ request one of the hunters, a short blonde guy, walked toward the Camaro and proceeded to smash the driver's side window with of the car a, rather large, gun that came out of seemingly nowhere.

   “Looks good to me,” the man said.

   “Drive safe,” Chris told Derek before getting in his own car and driving off, his two goons following soon after.

   Once he was sure Argent was long gone, Stiles ran out of the convenience store and rushed over to Derek. “Are you okay man?”

   “Fine.” Derek looked like the picture of calm, though Stiles didn’t believe it for a second.

   “You sure? Because I’m pretty sure an Argent just gave you a not so thinly veiled threat and made one of his goons smash one of the windows to your poor car. That doesn’t sound fine to me.”

   “I’m fine,” Derek repeated before opening the door to the Camaro and getting as much glass as he could out of it. Stiles just sighed before walking over to the passenger's side and doing the same.

   "You know, I could probably report this as a hate crime to my dad. I’m a witness so I’m sure you could at least get a restraining order or something.”

   “Can’t.”

   “Why the hell not.”

   “Werewolf,” Derek replied, flashing his eyes.

   “Please, I’ve got a plan for that part.” Derek raised a questioning eyebrow and Stiles rolled his eyes. “We could cover it up as something else. Like, they weren’t happy you were cleared of murder charges. Or, maybe, say it was like a hate crime because you like dudes or something. I don’t know, but somewhere along those lines.”

   “I’d rather not announce my sexuality to the whole town. But, thanks. I’m fine though. And I’d rather leave it alone.” Stiles didn’t like it but at the same time, he was kind of busy with the bi panic also currently running through his head about the fact that DEREK LIKED GUYS.

BREAK

   It was surprisingly easy for Derek and Stiles to slip past the health desk and into Myers' hospital room. The hospital should probably have better security than it does.

  When they got to the room they found Myers covered in bandages and gauze and passed out.

   Once Stiles closed the door Derek didn’t waste any time. “Open your eyes,” he demanded with no response. “Open your eyes,” he repeated with a slight growl. This time Myers listened. “Look at me.” Slowly Myers lifted his head off his pillow and looked at Derek before looking over to Stiles. “Don’t look at him, look at me.” Myers did as he was instructed and focused back on Derek. “What do you remember?”

   “Hale,” was all he said. As Derek wanted, Stiles observed everything about Myers' reaction and it was one he recognized.

   Derek slightly off-put asked, “How do you know my name?”

   “I’m sorry.” It was guilt. But what did Myers have to feel guilty for and how did it involve Derek? Or based on the choice of name, the Hales in general?

   “How do you know me?”

   “I’m sorry,” Myers repeated before letting out a shaky breath and resting his head back on his pillow. Slowly the man's heart rate started to decrease on the machine next to him.

   “Derek, we need to go.” Derek didn’t move. “Derek, we need to go now. This man is dying and we need to go before he flatlines and doctors and nurses are swarming this room. Derek!” Stiles said again before grabbing his wrist. The touch seemed to snap the older teen out of whatever trance he seemed to be in. “Come on,” he said in a calm yet concerned tone. All Derek did was nod before allowing Stiles to lead him out of the room.

BREAK

After Derek dropped Stiles off at his Jeep he texted Cora and told her to take care of Derek when he got home. She didn’t ask any questions, just responded with an okay but based on what Stiles could see, Derek would stay at the Hale house tonight. Stiles didn’t like it but at the same time figured it was where the werewolf needed to be right now.

   After leaving the Hale house Stiles decided to go to the McCall home to tell Scott what happened since he figured his date would be over by now. It didn’t take him long to get there. Going to the McCall house was basically second nature to Stiles by now considering how much time he spent there both when his mother was sick after she died. When he pulled up to the house Stiles could see the car in the driveway but didn’t see Scott’s bike by the porch where he usually left it, which meant he probably wasn’t home but Melissa was. She probably hadn’t been there long considering he was pretty sure he and Derek had just missed her on their way out of the hospital.

   Given the fact that it was currently almost midnight, Stiles figured Scott wouldn’t be too much longer and got out of the jeep. When he got to the front door it was locked so Stiles decided to go through Scott’s window which was always left open even though it probably shouldn't be. He was immediately greeted with a bat-wielding mama McCall when he crawled through.

   “Stiles! What the hell are you doing here?” she asked after a thorough screaming match between the two of them.

   “What am I doing? God, do either of you even play baseball?” he questioned, remembering when Scott greeted Stiles in a similar fashion and with the same bat the night they went looking for Laura's body.

   “What‘s going on?” Scott said as he entered the room.

   “Thank god. Can you please tell your friend to use the front door?” Melissa told her son.

   “But we locked the front door. He wouldn’t be able to get in.” Scott said as if that was a perfectly reasonable reason for Stiles to basically break into their home.

   “Yeah, exactly. And, by the way, do either of you care that there’s a police-enforced curfew?”

   “No,” Scott and Stiles replied in unison.

   “No. All right then. Well, you know what? That’s about enough parenting for me for one night, so good night.” Melissa threw the bat on the bed then left the room.

   “Good night,” Scott responded. Stiles sighed at the news he had to deliver as Scott grabbed his desk chair. “What?”

   “It’s the bus driver. He has ‘succumbed to his wounds’.”

   “Succumbed?”

   “Scott, he’s dead.” Before Stiles could even explain what happened Scott jumped out of his chair, knocking it down in the process, and bolted out of the house.

   “Shit,” he muttered to himself before pulling out his phone to call Derek.

   After the phone rang three times Derek picked up. “Stiles? What’s going on?”

   “Listen, I think Scott’s on his way to the Hale house.”

   “What? Why?”

   “I came over to tell him about what happened to Myers. But before I could explain anything he ran out of the house like a bad out of hell. And since he’s been pretty consistent with blaming you for everything I think he probably does for this too,” Stiles said as he made his way out of the McCall house and to his jeep.

   “Shit. I’ll deal with him when he gets here.”

   “Okay. I’m on my way to help. Try not to hurt him too much until I get there.”

   “Wait, Stiles, don’t. I can-” before Derek could finish talking Stiles hung up and hopped in the jeep hoping that Scott wouldn’t hurt Derek too much either.

BREAK

The first thing Stiles heard when he pulled up to the Hale house is what he assumed is someone being thrown through a wall but he didn’t pay much attention to it because all he could think about is the fact that Derek could be hurt. As soon as the sound fully registered in his mind though he was running out of the car, not even bothering to close the door or shut off the jeep.

   Stiles could feel his nails turning to claws and his teeth sharpening into fangs. By the time he reached the front door of the house, he was on all fours and in his full shift. He could hear a growl emanating from the room on his left so he jumped through the hole that was created by whoever was thrown through the wall.

   Stiles jumped between the two wolves. Both of them were in their beta shift, Derek at the front of the room Scott at the back. Turning to face Scott, Stiles roared at his best friend who now seemed stunned in fear, confusion, and shock. The fiery white fur on Stiles' legs seemed to be glowing and the red of his fur looked like it was darkening. Derek, who was currently behind Stiles, was frozen just like Scott, except he was frozen in surprise more than anything else. Surprised at the fact that Stiles was trying to protect him, and that he seemed willing to hurt his best friend to do it.

   Snapping out of his daze Derek slowly started to move around the very angry, very protective, currently very dangerous werefox in front of him, beta shift receding as he did. Stiles' eyes were locked on Scott while he growled at the teen just daring him to see what would happen if he tried to hurt Derek. Hurt what was his.

   When Derek finally came into Stiles’ line of sight his eyes shifted over to him and the growling toned down some. Slowly kneeling down Derek and starting to inch closer to Stiles. The whole time the fox's gaze was shifting between him and Scott.

   Blocking Scott from view Derek sat in front of Stiles and held out his hand for the fox to sniff which seemed to stop the growling completely. Hesitantly, Stiles moved his muzzle up to Derek’s palm and sniffed. Deeming him safe Stiles shifted so that the top of his head was now against Derek’s hand. Smiling slightly, Derek pet Stiles while using his other hand to gently nudge him into his lap so he could pick up the larger than a normal fox. When Stiles was fully in his lap Derek wrapped an arm around him to pick him up while still petting the top of his head.

   “Who- Wh-What is that thing?” Scott asked from behind Derek.

   “Use your nose, Scott.”

   “Stiles?” Scott’s scent was flooded with anger. “What did you do to him?” Sensing Scott’s aggression, Stiles started to growl once again.

   “Come down or he’s going to attack you. And I didn’t do anything to him. He was bit, just like you.”

   “W-Why would he attack me? I’m his best friend.”

   “Because you were threatening me,” he said, still trying to wrap his mind around it as well. “Stiles was trying to protect me from you.”

    “B-But why? Why would he protect you? He knows what you did. He knows you killed Myers.” Stiles growled at Scott again.

   “I didn’t kill him. Neither of us did. It’s not your fault, and it’s not mine.”

   “This? This is all your fault!” Stiles growling started to grow louder again. “You ruined my life, his life.”

   “No, I didn’t,” Derek said, pushing Stiles closer to his chest as Scott started to move closer, wanting to protect the fox just as much as the fox wanted to protect him.

   “You’re the one who bit me. Bit Stiles.”

   “No, I’m not.”

   “What?” Scott reached out to touch Stiles, get him away from Derek maybe, only to have the fox bite his wrist.

  “I’m not the one who bit you two.” Touching the blood of the now healed bite wound, Scott remembered something else about that night.

   “There’s another.”

   “It’s called an alpha. It’s the most dangerous of our kind. You, me, Stiles; we’re betas. This thing is more powerful, more animal than any of us.” Well Stiles might come close, he thought privately to himself. As if somehow sensing his thought Stiles playfully nipped at Derek’s fingers. “My sister died looking for him. Now I’m trying to find him. But I don’t think I can do it without the two of you.”

   “Why us.”

   “Because he’s the one who bit you. You’re part of his pack. It’s you two. You’re what he wants.”

Chapter Text

After Derek’s news, Stiles refused to leave the older teen’s side and he seemed just fine with it. Anytime Scott got even the slightest amount closer than a yard Stiles would growl at or try to bite the werewolf, so in the end Derek had to drive him home. The fox refused to shift back until he was safe at home and in his room.

   After that everything was perfectly normal for four whole days, well as normal as Stiles’ new life could be. Harris was a total ass towards Stiles who was still one of his best students (grade wise at least). Scott talked obsessively about Allison and absolutely refused to talk about Derek, worried he would be mauled by a full shift Stiles. Derek, while not still publicly going to school, had Cora bring him all his work as well as notes provided by his teachers or -in the classes that they shared- Stiles. Cora had taken to sticking a little closer to Stiles but not actively engaging with him in really any capacity.

   Yes, for four whole days everything was fine but then on the night of the final night Stiles was awoken to the sound of a quiet bang and a rather loud howl. Although everything inside him was urging Stiles to run out of his house and go to said howl, he didn’t. No matter how much it went against his instincts. Instead he called Derek.

   Derek picked up almost immediately. “Stiles.” His voice was loud and only slightly breathless.

   “Derek,” Stiles nearly yelled. “Did you hear it. The howl.”

   “Yeah, I did, so did Cora. Scott probably did too. I told Cora to stay put, same goes for you. If you can reach Scott, tell him the same.”

   “Derek, I don’t- I don’t know if I can.”

   “Yes, you can. You have the best control out of any newly turned beta I’ve ever seen, okay. You can do this. If it helps get Cora to come over. Just whatever you do stay. home."

   “Please don’t die.”

   “Wouldn’t dream of it.” And like that Derek was gone.

   Stiles quickly tried to call Scott and tell him to stay home but the other teen never answered. After several failed attempts to contact Scott through both text and call he shot off a text to Cora.

User: I’m not getting a response from Scott. I think he might’ve gone after the alpha's howl.

Cora Hale: Shit.

User: Yeah.

Cora Hale: I’m coming over.

User: I’m fine. Stay wherever it is you and Derek live.

Cora Hale: Not asking for permission.

   Not even ten minutes later Cora was climbing through Stiles’ window. Stiles was a little jealous how graceful she did it too. Even with all his new reflexes Stiles was still an extremely clumsy person.

   “Has he really not responded? Like at all?” she asked as soon she was fully in the room and seated in Stiles' desk chair.

   “No. I called Derek as soon as I heard the howl. He just said to stay put and pass along the message.”

   “I told him he shouldn’t go alone. So let’s hope both of those idiot’s at least try to help each other if something goes wrong.”

   “Yeah let’s hope the scare I gave Scott the other day will convince him not to be such an asshole towards your brother.” Cora raised a questioning eyebrow. “Derek didn’t tell you?”

   “Tell me what?” she sounded and looked like she could boil over at any moment.

   “The other day, when that bus driver died, Scott thought it was Derek so he went to go confront him. Well more like blatantly accuse him of murder and then try to attack him.” Cora let out a small growl. “Hey don’t worry I’m sure Derek would have handled it perfectly fine even if I hadn’t shown up and stopped Scott.” Cora looked him up and down with a disbelieving look as if to say ‘You?’. “Hey I’ll have you know that me showing up in the middle of the fight in full shift is what stopped Scott’s little rampage.”

   Cora’s eyes grew wide. “You what?” Cora sounded a lot more than a little shocked and it sent a slight blow to Stiles’ ego.

   “Yeah I kind of wolfed out -foxed out? Whatever- on Scott when I heard him throw Derek through a wall and was basically ready to claw his eyes out. Or preform at least some kind of bodily harm towards him. That’s when Derek decided to drop the whole alpha bomb on us.”

   “Of course he did,” Cora said with a huff.

   “Yeah, you Hales need to work on timing.” Cora let out another huff that surprisingly sounded like she was saying “no shit” and “go fuck yourself” at the same time.

   It never ceased to amaze Stiles how expressive the Hales were when they wanted to be.

BREAK

   After Cora went back home that night Stiles texted Derek to check in. He never got a response. He did the same thing again after he woke up that morning. Still he got no response. He did get a call back from Scott though, so at least he was okay.

   By the time he got to school he still hadn’t heard a word from Derek. He was thinking about calling him again when Scott came up and slapped him in the back making him drop his phone. After making sure his phone wasn’t broken Stiles sent his friend a withering glare.

   “Sorry man,” was all Scott said before spotting Allison and rushing off, completely forgetting about Stiles. He briefly listened to their interaction hearing something about Allison’s aunt, Kate, before deciding to go to class.

   When Scott finally got to class as well he started asking about Derek and their new situation surrounding the older teen. He found it rather odd because other than asking what exactly Stiles was Scott had been careful not to about the supernatural aspect of their lives for some reason, specifically the one in Stiles’.

   “If Derek isn’t the alpha, if he’s not the one who bit us, then who did?” Scott asked as the teacher started handing out their recently graded tests.

   “I don’t know,” he responded, trying to rack his brain to find the best suspect for who the alpha was, like he had been for a while now. But he was glad Scott no longer believed that Derek was the one who bit him, even if it took Stiles trying to attack him to do it.

   “Did the alpha kill the bus diver?” Stiles asked in turn

   “I don’t know.”

   “Does Allison’s dad know about the…”

   “I don’t know,” Scott said, raising his voice in protection of Allison and her (hunter) family.

   “Dude you need to study more,” Stiles told his friend when they finally got their tests back. Stiles had gotten an A -unsurprisingly- and Scott got a D – also not that surprising, Stiles was very much the brains of their little operation.

   “That was a joke.” He informed Scott when the werewolf threw his paper down in defeat. “Scott, it’s one test. You’re gonna make it up. Do you want help studying?”

   “No,” he sighed. “I’m studying at Allison's after school today.”

   “Of course you are.”

   “What’s that supposed to mean?”

   “Studying, never actually means studying.” Scott was the stupidest person on the planet. Allison’s dad already shot him just for existing, Stiles could only imagine what the man would do if he found out that Scott is sleeping with his daughter.

   “Whatever man. We’re just going to study.”

   “Sure you are buddy.”

   “Can we just stop talking about this now?” Scott begged while pulling out his puppy dog eyes

   “Fine. Conversation over.”

   “Hey I know what we can talk about.” Scott’s face lit up. “Derek.”

   “No. Nononono. Shut up. Just-Just shut up.”

   “Come on man. You looked like you were ready to kill me the other day over him.”

   “I’m ready to kill you right now, too, Scott. So just, stop talking, okay?” he asked, not actually wanting Scott to answer. “Okay. Now look at the front of the classroom and no. more. talking. about. Derek.” Scott sighed but did as he was told.

BREAK

   Walking slowly down the hallway with his head down Derek was doing his best not to collapse in school. A few people bumped into him while walking by, irritating the bullet wound hidden under the left arm of his jacket.

   When the wound didn’t start healing after he pulled out the slug he quickly figured out that the bullet was laced with wolfsbane. He didn't know what type or how long it would take for the poison to reach his heart but he knew how to stop it from killing him. He also knew who shot him, Kate Argent. Luckily for him Scott just so happened to be dating another Argent and could get him one of the bullets, if he didn’t die before then.

   While walking down the hall he caught someone who had small traces of Scott and Stiles scent. When he looked up he saw a blonde teen he vaguely recognized as the captain of the lacrosse team. They had interacted a few times given the fact that Derek happened to be captain of the basketball team, but not for much longer he assumed. But he couldn’t remember the boy’s name so he doesn’t bother trying to figure it out.

   Speeding up and walking over to the other teen he was slightly glad they didn’t recognize him.

   “Tell me where Scott McCall or Stiles Stilinski is.”

   “Why should I tell you?”

   “Because I asked you politely,” he said, already starting to get irritated by the blonde just from the one sentence. “And I only do that once.”

   “Hmm. Okay, tough guy. How about I help you find him and you tell me what you’re selling Scott? What is it? Is it Dianabol? Hmm? HGH?”

   “Steroids? You think I’m a drug dealer?” Derek knew he looked a little older than a typical high school student but he was still only nineteen-years-old.

   He was about to walk away but the kid stopped him before he could.

   “No. I think you sell girl scout cookies for your troop. What the hell do you think I’m talking about? Oh, and by the way, whatever it is you’re selling, I’d probably stop sampling the merchandise. You looked wrecked,” he said in faux concern.

   Derek looked down at his hand as he felt blood starting to make its way down his fingers and saw a drop or two of it hit the floor. “I’ll find them myself,” he said, not wanting to waste any more time.

   “No, we’re not done here.”

   The teen grabbed Derek’s shoulder to try and stop him from leaving. Instincts taking over Derek turned, grabbing the boy’s arm and neck and slamming him face first into the lockers. With the wolfsbane in his system, Derek couldn’t control it when his claws came out piercing the teens neck. He quickly removed his hand and saw his nails covered in blood. Derek rushed away as fast as he could manage in his current state and turned a corner nearly collapsing against a wall.

   Calming down Derek reached out with his hearing to try and find Scott. Instead he found two girls talking about Scott coming over after school.

BREAK

    The bell sounded letting students know they could go home. Stiles was glad his last class was close to the parking lot and he quickly made his way to the jeep. He had still yet to hear from Derek, and Cora hadn’t shown up to school today either. She told him she was going to wait for Derek at their place in case he came home. But he hadn’t heard anything from Cora yet so he was planning on calling both siblings as soon as he got home.

   He didn’t have to wait long. Pulling out of his parking spot Stiles started to drive towards the exit when Derek walked out in front of the jeep. Hitting the break and yelling the word “shit” Stiles got out of the jeep and rushed over to the teen who was now collapsed on the ground.

   Behind them people started to honk their horns in protest of the line suddenly stopping and not moving. The honking then caught the attention of Scott who was over by the bike rack and somehow managed to reach Derek before Stiles was even out of his car.

   “What are you doing here,” Scott said helping Derek up slightly.

   “I was shot.” Stiles’ eyes widened in concern at the news. He had specifically told Derek not to die last night.

   “Derek, you’re not looking so good.” Stiles brought up, too worried his voice would crack with emotion to say anything else.

   “Why aren’t you healing?” Scott asked which just made Stiles even more concerned.

   “I can’t. It was a different kind of bullet.”

   “Fucking hunters,” Stiles muttered under his breath. “A silver bullet?” he said skeptically.

   “No, you idiot.” Derek responded angrily, which Stiles let pass considering the situation the man was currently in right now.

   “Wait-Wait-Wait,” Scott stuttered. “That’s what she meant when she said you had 48 hours.”

   “What?” Stiles said confused while Derek asked, “Who said 48 hours?”

   “The one who shot you.”

   “You didn’t think to mention this earlier!” Stiles whisper shouted.

   Trying to get through another wave of pain Derek’s eyes started flashing in and out of the electric blue they take on as a wolf and their natural green color. The car horns started to get louder and more frequent.

   “What are you doing?” Scott said in a panic voiced. “Derek, you need to stop that,” Stiles finished.

   “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I can’t.”

   “Derek, get up.” Scott urged while Derek was making his way through another wave of pain. “Help me put him in your car.” Without argument Stiles rushed to Derek’s other side to try and help him into the jeep.

   “I need you to find out what kind of bullet they used,” Derek said to Scott when he was in the passenger side and Stiles was making his way to the driver’s side door of the jeep.

   “How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

   “She’s an Argent. She’s with them.”

   “Why should I help you?” An involuntary growl came from Stiles when he heard Scott’s words.

   “Because you need me.”

   “Fine I’ll try.” Scott said before turning to Stiles. “Get him out of here.”

   “If you let him die, Scott, I will kill you.” To further emphasize his point Stiles flashed his purple and amber eyes as well as showed some slight fang before driving off.

   Not knowing where else to go Stiles started to make his way to the old Hale house. About thirty minutes into the drive he called Scott to try and see if he had made any progress on getting the bullet.

   Predictably, Scott didn’t answer.

User: Did you find it yet?

Scotty: Need more time.

   Stiles sighed at Scott’s response. “Hey, try not to bleed on my seats, okay?” Stiles was trying to go for humorous tone but considering the break in his voice he failed. “We’re almost there.”

   “Almost where?” Derek sounded so exhausted and it made Stiles want to cry (which he may or may not be doing on the inside right now).

   “Your old house.”

   “What? No, you can’t take me there.” Derek sounded kind of scared which made the fox inside of Stiles whine. Being the first time it actually did that -or made any sort of acknowledgement that it was even there- it was a lot less weird than he expected, it felt kind of… natural.

   “Why not? I don’t think you’ll tell me where you actually live.”

   “I can’t be there. Not when I can’t protect myself.” I can protect you, he thought. His fox seemed to agree. Stiles decided to pull over, getting a little frustrated at the thought that Derek didn’t think Stiles could help.

   “What happens if Scott doesn’t find your magic bullet? Are you dying?” He didn’t like saying, in fact he cringed a little when he said the words (and the fox inside wined again), but it needed to be addressed.

   “Not yet. I have a last resort.”

   “What do you mean?” Stiles asked, his worry and fear starting to skyrocket. “What last resort?” Derek rolled his sleeve up revealing the bullet wound. The surrounding skin was smeared with blood while the wound itself looked black and slightly infected. “Oh my god, what is that?” he asked around a gag at the noxious smell. “Is it contagious? Ugh, yeah, you know what, I might need to get out.” Stiles felt like he was going to throw up because of the smell alone.

   “Start the car. Now,” Derek growled, which to the werefox side of him was presented as a challenge. To the human side it was presenting Derek as an asshole who, even though he was in a tough position, needed to shut up.

   “I really don’t think you should be barking orders with the way you look. In fact, I think if I wanted to, I could probably drag your little werewolf ass out into the middle of the road and leave you for dead. Not that I would of course, but the point still stands!” Even with the last sentence included, Stiles words only seemed to piss off Derek even more.

   “Start the car, or I’m gonna rip your throat out, with my teeth,” he said as he barred those exact teeth, which looked rather sharp when Stiles examined them.

   Heaving a frustrated sigh Stiles grumbled out “I should just get Cora to come deal with your stubborn ass,” as he started the car.

   When he heard those words Derek growled again. “No. Cora.”

   “Okay, jeez.” He said when Roscoe finally started and he pulled back onto the road.

BREAK

   So far the study date/mission to find Derek's life saving bullet was going well, at least in Scott’s opinion it was. He had found out that Allison’s aunt, Kate, was probably the one who shot Derek and that Allison was a master at archery which meant that she could probably kill him. Not that she would of course. Scott was still pretty sure Allison wasn’t involved with the hunter side of her family.

   At one point Allison’s dad, Chris, along with Kate came home and Chris found Scott and Allison in the garage where they were making out just seconds before. He then made the pair help bring in groceries. After they were done with groceries Scott got another text from Stiles saying that Derek was in poor shape. Instead of replying Scott put his phone in his pocket and focused back on what was going on around him

   Scott tried to stay but Chris insisted that he leave, and Scott didn’t really push too hard to stay. Kate became his saving grace though and was able to convince Chris to let him stay for dinner. At which he vaguely threatened Scott in the typical protective father fashion before leading him inside.

   The dinner itself was extremely awkward. Chris made several attempts to try to paint Scott in a bad light. Allison in turn made several attempts to save him and Kate made a couple as well. Scott made a rather poor joke to try and save the night which luckily worked a little. He then got another text from Stiles saying to call him.

BREAK

   Stiles had been driving aimlessly for almost two hours now. Derek still refused to tell him where he truly lived or to get Cora involved no matter how many attempts he made to argue that it was stupid not to do so.

   Getting frustrated Stiles pulled over again and texted Scott telling the werewolf to call him. Luckily he didn’t have to wait too long.

   “What am I supposed to do with him right now. He won’t tell me where he lives and won’t let Cora get involved. And dying Derek, kind of dick.” He raised his voice for the last part saying it more to his passenger than to Scott.

   Stiles was also currently trying to ignore the part of himself that wanted to curl around Derek while crying and never let go of him again. Being angry helped him do that so, he was sticking with angry at the moment

   “I don’t know. Take him somewhere. Anywhere!” Stiles huffed into the phone considering he just told Scott, Derek’s not letting him take him anywhere.

   “And by the way he’s starting to smell.”

   “Like what?”

   “Like death,” he said solemnly, his fox howling away with grief inside of him.

   “Okay... Take him to the animal clinic.”

   “What about your boss.” Stiles was pretty sure Deaton wasn’t his biggest fan. Breaking into the man's work place probably wouldn’t help.

   “He’s gone by now. There’s a spare key in a box behind the dumpster.”

   “You’re not gonna believe where he’s telling me to take you,” Stiles said, handing over the phone to Derek and totally forgetting that he probably heard the entire conversation.

   “Did you find it?” were the first words out of Derek’s mouth.

   “How am I supposed to find one bullet? They have a million! This house is like the freaking Walmart of guns!”

   “Look, if you don’t find it I’m dead, all right?”

   “I’m starting to think that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.” Stiles let out a growl at those words, hoping it was loud enough for Scott to hear and be thoroughly reminded of his earlier threat.

   Derek held out his uninjured hand in order to try and placate Stiles. “Then think about this. The alpha called you out against your will. He’s going to do it again. Next time, you either kill or you get killed.” He was also worried Stiles might not be able to hold out the next time either. “So if you want to stay alive, then you need me. Find the bullet.” Derek hung up then passed the phone back to Stiles and they made their way to the clinic.

BREAK

   When Derek hung up Scott hated how right he was. He made his way to the garage to try and find the right bullet but the garage was armed with an alarm. When the alarm went off Kate made her way into the hall and found Scott. When asked what he was doing Scott gave the good old bathroom excuse. She seemed to buy it and told him to use the bathroom in her room.

   When he got into the room he went straight towards the black duffle bag he saw under Kate’s bed. In it he found clothes along with a black box full of different kinds of bullets. In the center of the case was another smaller wooden box. When he opened it he found nine casings with one slot missing. He pulled out one of the bullets and could smell the wolfsbane inside making him sneeze.

   Stuffing the bullet into his pocket and closed the box. He noticed an inscription on the top of the box that read ‘Aconit Napel Bleu Nordique’. He put it into his phone's translator not knowing what it said. Translated from French to English the inscription read “Nordic Blue Monkshood”.

   Quickly putting everything in the bag back in place before leaving the room, Scott went back to the dining room and tried to make an exit. Kate refused, saying she wanted to learn more about him. Victoria, Allison’s mom, asked about his job. Stiles texted him again saying he needed to get to the animal clinic.

   Chris started asking what he thought it heard about on the ‘animal’ attacks. He said what everyone else has been saying, mountain lion. Suddenly every adult in the room started to ask his opinion on what really did it. After mentioning that the clinic just gets cats and dogs Chris launched into a story about a rabid dog his father put down. He sounded suspiciously like he was talking about werewolves.

BREAK

   They were finally inside the clinic when Derek took off his shirt revealing a tattoo on his back as well as the worsened state of the bullet wound on his arm. There was even more blood surrounding the skin around the wound now. There were also veins of different purples, grays, and blacks going up his arm and down to his wrist.

   “Okay. You know, that really doesn’t look like anything some echinacea and a good night’s sleep couldn’t take care of.” Humor is your best friend, humor is your best friend, Stiles continued to chant this in his head, focusing on the grade instead of the person he cared about very deeply, possibly loved, dying on the other side of the table.

   “When the infection reaches my heart, it’ll kill me.” They were currently in a room with several cabinets in draws which Derek started to rifle through while Stiles, who had tears coming to his eyes that he quickly wiped away, stood by the metal table at the center of the room.

   “Positivity just isn’t in your vocabulary, is it?” Stiles said with a sad attempt at a laugh.

   “If he doesn’t get here with the bullet in time, last resort…”

   “Which is?” Stiles said skeptically.

   “You’re going to cut off my arm.” Derek then pulled out a bone saw from one of the draws. Stiles gagged slightly at the thought and the fox inside howled at the thought of hurting Derek.

   The pair waited another thirty minutes for Scott to show up to no avail. Giving up on waiting for Scott to show up Derek slid the bone saw across the table over to Stiles who picked it with great trepidation.

   “Oh my god! What if you bleed to death?” Worry, anxiety, and dread were now seeping into Stiles’ every word.

   Derek started to wrap a tourniquet around his arm using his teeth to hold one end and his right hand to hold the other. “If it works I’ll heal,” he said around the tourniquet.”

   “Look, I don’t know if I can do this.”

   “Why not?”

   He wanted to respond with something like “because it’s you” or “I don’t think I can hurt you”. Instead he said this, “Well, because of the cutting through the flesh, the sawing of the bone, and especially the blood!” and while, yes, those are all attributing factors they also make him sound like a total apathetic dick.

   “You faint at the sight of blood?”

   “No. But I might at the sight of a chopped-off arm!” Which again, true, but this was Derek. A person who Stiles was quite willing to kill to protect. Someone that the fox inside was willing to slaughter for. And aren't those fun things to learn about yourself in a life or death situation.

   “Alright, fine. How about this? Either you cut off my arm, or I’m gonna cut off your head.”

   “Okay, you know, I’m so not buying your threats anymore.” In response Derek grabbed Stiles by the collar of his shirt with his teeth near the boy’s throat. “Oh my god! Okay. All right, bought, sold, totally I’ll do it.” Stiles said both afraid and slightly aroused, though he hoped the smell of Derek’s bullet wound (as well as his worry) made up for it.

   “What are you doing,” Stiles asked when Derek started to heave slightly. Instead of answering Derek leaned over the side of the table and vomited up a black liquid. Based on the smell, Stiles assumed it was some kind of tainted blood. “Holy God! What the hell is that?”

   “It’s my body, trying to heal itself.”

   “Well, it’s not doing a very good job of it,” he said while trying not to vomit himself.

   “Now, you gotta do it now.”

   “Look, honestly, I really don’t think I can.”

   “Just do it!” Derek bellowed.

   “Oh my god. Okay.” He pushed the button on the bone saw to make sure it works, it did, sadly. “Okay. Oh my god.” He positioned the saw just an inch or two below the tourniquet. “Alright, here we go!” Just as he was about to push the button on the bone saw Stiles heard Scott calling his name.

   “What the hell are you doing?” Scott said with when he saw what was about to happen.

   Stiles put the saw down on the table though he felt like throwing it. “Uh, you just prevented a lifetime of nightmares.” As well as massive amounts of trauma.

   “Did you get it?” Most of Derek’s torso was now draped over the metal table. Scott grabbed the bullet out of his pocket and handed it to Derek.

   “What are you gonna do with it?”

   “I’m going to…” Before Derek could finish his sentence he collapsed to the floor and the bullet fell with him rolling under a cabinet. Stiles ran over and bent down besides Derek while Scott scrambled for the bullet.

   “Derek?” Stiles lifted his head slightly and started lightly tapping the side of Derek’s face. “Derek, come on. Wake up! Scott what the hell are we gonna do.”

   “I don’t know.” Scott was currently struggling to reach the wolfsbane bullet.

   “He’s not waking up! I think he’s dying. I think he’s dead.” Please god, don’t be dead, he thought inside his panicked mind. “Please, don’t hate me for this,” he said before punching Derek as hard as he could in the face to try and wake him up.

   It worked, and Stiles just barely stopped himself from hugging the guy, but it still hurt like a son of a bitch in both aspects.

   Derek quickly hauled himself to his feet with the help of the two teenagers and took the bullet from Scott. He opened the bullet and emptied the wolfsbane from the shell. He then grabbed a random lighter from his (which where the hell did that come from) pocket and set the wolfsbane on fire before sweeping into his hand and digging it into his wound. The pain from doing this made Derek fall to the floor again but this time he was writhing in pain. It was over rather quickly though and soon all of the black and grey veins disappeared before the entire wound was healed.

   “That, was, awesome! Yes!” Stiles exclaimed when everything was said and done. He wasn't talking about the whole Derek writhing in pain part, as that had been it's own kind of pain, but the fact that Derek was completely healed now was wonderful.

   “Are you okay?” Scott was the one to ask.

   “Except for the agonizing pain?”

   “I’m guessing the ability to use sarcasm is a good sign of health,” Stiles commented with a smile, glad Derek was quickly getting back to his old self.

   “Okay, we saved your life, which means you’re gonna leave us alone. You got that?” Stiles scoffed and glared at his best friend. He just started hanging out with Derek, even if it was because they were all in danger, he didn’t plan on stopping any time soon. “A-And if you don’t, I’m-I’m gonna go back to Allison’s dad, and I’m gonna tell him everything.” Stiles let out a warning growl, he couldn’t believe how stupid Scott was. Hunters aren’t a werewolf’s friend, that was pretty much one of the first lessons they had learned in all of this.

   “You’re gonna trust them? You think they can help you?” Stiles made his way over to the side of the room Derek was on trying to make it clear to Scott whose side he was on for this argument.

   “Why not? They're a lot freaking nicer than you are!”

   “They shot you with a crossbow, Scott,” Stiles all but yelled.

   “And if that can't convince you, I can show you exactly how nice they are myself.” Anger, guilt, and grief were now radiating off of Derek.

   “What do you mean?” Scott asked.

   “Come on,” he growled. “You’re coming to,” he told Stiles.

   “Hey, I'm agreeing with you on this.”

   “Then consider this more of a reason not to trust them.”

BREAK

   Derek pulled into the parking lot of Beacons Crossing Home, a long time care facility. One of only two in Beacon Hills, the other being at the hospital it's self.

   “What are we doing here?” Scott asked as they all got out of the car. Derek didn’t bother answering, just made his way into the facility not waiting to see if Scott and Stiles had followed him.

   It didn’t take long to reach the desired room.

   “Who is he?” Scott asked. Stiles stood there on Derek’s left side watching both him and the man in the wheelchair that resided in the room. He was blonde with blue eyes based on what he could see with the minimal lighting and angle the man was faced.

   “My uncle,” Derek stated, “Peter Hale.”

   “Is he like you?” Us, Stiles corrected Scott in his head. “A werewolf?”

   “He was. Now he’s barely even human.” Stiles hesitantly placed a gentle hand on Derek’s shoulder and kept it there when it wasn't immediately shrugged off. “Five years ago, my sisters and I were at school. Our house caught fire. Eleven people were trapped inside. He was the only survivor.”

   “So, what makes you so sure that they set the fire?” Scott asked.

   “Cause they’re the only ones that knew about us.” Stiles lightly squeezed the shoulder his hand was currently resting on, knowing this was most likely a difficult thing for Derek to talk about.

   “Then they had a reason.” Stiles glared full on death at Scott for that comment.

   “Like what, Scott?” Stiles ground out between clenched teeth. It was the first time he had spoken since they arrived. Stiles let his hand fall off Derek’s shoulder and he planted it in his jacket pocket.

   “You tell me what justifies this,” Derek said before reaching down and turning Peter's wheelchair. Before they only had a view of Peter’s left side and now they had a view of the man's entire face, half of which was covered in burn scars. “They say they’ll only kill an adult and only with absolute proof. But there were people in my family that were perfectly ordinary in that fire. This is what they do.”

   “And it’s what Allison will do,” Stiles finished, still glaring daggers at his best friend.

   “What are you doing?” said a nurse that was checking on Peter. “How did you get in here.”

   “We were just leaving,” Derek said before exiting the room, Stiles followed closely behind him while Scott lingered for a moment before following to.

   When they got back to the camaro Scott went over to the passengers side while Stiles followed Derek to the drivers side. Before Derek could open the car door Stiles pulled him into a hug. Derek was tense for a moment before slowly easing into the touch.

   “I’m sorry,” he said before letting go of Derek and hopping into the back of the camaro. Derek stood there for a moment, frozen in surprise. Not too long ago Stiles said that those words don’t hold much meaning when it comes to loss but in this instant Derek thinks he couldn't have been more wrong.

Chapter Text

Stiles thought about the other day when Derek took him and Scott to see Peter. If it wasn’t for the man’s current state he would definitely peg him as the alpha. The only reason he hadn’t is that when Derek turned Peter’s wheelchair there was no reaction from him. Not even the slightest flinch. So if he wasn't an actual vegetable he was a really good actor.

    The day after the ‘Bullet Incident’ Cora cornered Stiles in the hall during school and chewed him out for not telling her what had happened to Derek. Before he could even register what she had said she was already angrily stomping away. Needless to say, he sent some very strongly worded texts to Derek afterward about forcing him not to tell Cora when she found out anyway.

   “Hey, Stiles.” His father snapped his fingers by the teen's ear startling him. “If you’re done daydreaming about whoever it is you have a crush on, could I have my food now?” Stiles blushed while glaring slightly at the sheriff. When the man raised an expectant eyebrow Stiles caved and handed over the man’s burger. “Thank you.”

   Stiles didn’t usually let his dad eat fast food (even though he knew he did it when he wasn’t around, especially with his new super sniffer) but he also didn’t get many chances to eat with his dad at all. So now they were currently sitting in his dad’s squad car parked outside of Toby’s Fries, Burger, and Shakes because his dad was still technically working the night shift.

   When Stiles started pulling out his own food his dad spoke again. “Did they forget my curly fries?” Noah asked around his burger.

   “You’re not supposed to eat fries, especially the curly ones.”

   “Well, I‘m carrying a lethal weapon. If I want the curly fries, I will have the curly fries.”

   “If you think getting rid of contractions in all your sentences makes your argument any more legitimate, you. are. wrong.” Stiles released a small laugh when his dad’s face revealed an angry but slightly defeated look knowing that his son had won the argument. He may be a supernatural creature now, but the health and safety of his father were still Stiles’ number one concern.

   Stiles proceeded to stuff his face with the aforementioned curly fries when his dad’s radio came on. “Unit one, do you copy?” Stiles reached out for the radio but his dad slapped his hand away before responding.

   “Unit one, copy.”

   “We’ve got a report about a possible 187.”

   “A murder?” Stiles said through the curly fries about to fall out of his mouth, a few did.

   The scene itself was at a video rental store that Stiles himself occasionally went to. Outside of the store were two ambulances, one of which had Lydia and Jackson at the end of it being tended to by a paramedic.

   “Stay here,” Noah warned his son before getting out of the car. “Paul let’s get this area locked up,” Stiles heard his dad call out before turning his head to the ambulance where Jackson was getting uppity with one of the paramedics.

   “Why the hell can’t I just go home? I’m fine.”

   “I hear ya, but the EMT says you hit your head pretty hard,” the sheriff told Jackson. “They just wanna make sure you don’t have a concussion.”

   “What part of “I’m fine” are you having a problem grasping?” Jackson was getting closer to the sheriff. “Okay. I wanna go home.”

   “And I understand that-”

   “No you don’t understand,” Jackson interrupted. Stiles was now growling lowly in his seat and he could feel his teeth and nails starting to grow in length. “Which kind of blows my mind,” Stiles started to get out of the cruiser, ready to stop Jackson, by force if necessary, “since it should be a pretty basic concept to grasp for a minimum-wage rent-a-cop like you! Okay, now I wanna go home!” Stiles was quite ready to maul Jackson.

   “Oh, whoa, is that a dead body?” Stiles said from his place by the car becoming completely distracted from what was happening before. The Sheriff turned to give his son a peeved look before focusing back on the crime scene around him.

   People started to surround the scene, including the car and the sheriff started moving everyone back forcing Stiles to get back into the car. Before he did though Stiles caught a whiff of soil and orange peels that he had come to associate with Scott along with Derek’s scent combination of rain, leather, and sandalwood. He looked through the windshield of the cruiser and could just barely make out the pair’s faces on the roof of the building.

   Stiles was kind of pissed that neither Derek nor Scott invited him to tag along (even if he was there anyway), but he was even more pissed about how obvious the two were being. Scott was currently leaning slightly off the room using the edge with only his arm to hold him up. Derek was doing pretty much the same thing except with one of his legs instead.

  Stiles pulled out his phone, shaking his head at the pair’s stupidity.

BREAK

“Starting to get it?” Derek asked Scott from his place next to the younger teen.

   “I get that he’s killing people, but I don’t get why. I mean, this isn’t standard practice, right?” He was right, oddly. “We don’t go out in the middle of the night murdering everyone do we?”

   “No. We’re predators. But we don’t have to be killers.” That was ingrained into him as a child by his mother. Talia Hale hated that that’s how the hunters viewed them and wanted to make sure that her children never viewed themselves the same way.

   “Then why is he a killer?

   “That’s what we’re going to find out,” Derek said before moving away from the ledge, not caring whether or not Scott followed.

   When he was finally on the ground of the alleyway behind the store Derek felt a buzzing in his pocket. Pulled out his phone to see he had three texts from Stiles.

Stiles Stilinski: You guys are being way too obvious up there. I can see you from my dad’s cruiser.

Stiles Stilinski: I mean you hide a little better than Scott, but still. You two need to work on your sleuth abilities.

Stiles Stilinski: Also, next time invite me to the stakeout too. If it wasn’t for the fact that almost every time you and Scott see each other you try to maim and/or kill the other I might assume he was your favorite.

   Derek knew Stiles was there, he could smell him. He saw him too when he pointed out the body being carried to the ambulance. He just hadn’t known the teen saw him as well.

   He smiled at the texts the werefox had sent before replying.

User: What gave it away?

Stiles Stilinski: WOW. That was mean, even for you.

User: Suck it up. If you can come over to the old house later. I need to talk to you and Scott about something.

   After texting Stiles, Derek sent off a message to Cora saying he was alive and put his phone back in his pocket. After the incident involving the wolfsbane bullet Cora had threatened him with castration if he didn’t check in with her every morning, afternoon, and night that he was alive and well and with proof it was him. Derek intended to keep that promise, fearing she would follow through with her own. He grew up with Cora, he knew how ruthless his little sister could be.

BREAK

When Stiles saw that Derek wanted him to come over he was hopeful and a little excited. All that was squashed though when he saw that Scott was going to be there too. He cursed himself internally for letting his brain believe that Derek actually wanted to hang out with him for any reason other than the supernatural. Or show him where he and Cora actually lived.

   He let out a long sigh before getting out of the car and walking over to his dad to let him know he was leaving. He just hoped the man would believe his excuse.

   “For christ's sake- I thought I made it clear that you need to stay in the car,” Noah said when his son was in hearing range, or what he believed was hearing range for his son.

   “You did. I’m just letting you know that I’m going to go walk to Scott’s house.”

   “And you’re doing this, why?”

   “He called. Something about him and Allison. Basically begged me to swing by.”

   “Allison’s the new girlfriend he has, right?” Stiles nodded in confirmation. “Why don’t you just wait here until I’m finished and I can drop you off.”

   “Nah. I’m fine. Could use the walk to cool down a bit. I kind of wanted to punch Jackson earlier when you were talking to him. Ensure that he really did have a concussion.”

   “Stiles-”

   “Yeah, yeah, I know,” he interrupted. “No hurting people who might have a concussion, even if they are major douchebags. Anyway, I’ll see you at home.” He could hear the slight chuckle his dad released as well as the sigh when he walked away. He felt bad for lying, especially when he could smell the concern and guilt and uncertainty the man was feeling, but this was the best way to keep his dad safe.

BREAK

By the time Derek and Scott were at the Hale house, they could see Stiles on the porch waiting for them. Derek nodded slightly at Stiles before going inside while Scott waved at his friend before both he and Stiles followed the older were’ inside.

   “You know, I have a life too,” Scott told Derek who was making his way upstairs.

   “No, you don’t.” Stiles barked out a laugh before clamping both hands over his mouth. Scott was looking at him like an offended and kicked puppy. “You don’t either.”

   Stiles let you out an offended scoff. Derek wasn’t exactly wrong but he still felt the need to defend himself. “I will have you know sir, I am very active in several online gaming communities.” Derek turned to him and lifted an unimpressed eyebrow.

   “Okay, he may not have a life, but I do,” Scott said, making Stiles glare at him. “I don’t care what you say about him making us his pets or…”

   “Part of his pack,” Stiles corrected.

   “Whatever. I have homework to do. I have to go to a parent/teacher conference tomorrow because I’m failing chemistry.”

   “You wanna do homework? Or do you wanna not die?” Stiles thought Derek made a good point. But at the same time, he was passing all his classes so he couldn’t really comment on this part of the conversation. “You two have less than a week until the full moon. You don’t kill with him, he kills you.”

   “Okay, seriously who made up these rules?”

   “I second that,” Stiles commented after Scott’s question.

   “It’s a rite of passage into his pack,” Derek told them.

   “You know what else is a right of passage? Graduating from high school!” Stiles thought both wolves were making good arguments, but considering Derek’s was more on the side of them not dying he was inclined to agree with him more. “And you don’t have to kill anyone to do it.”

   “Most of the time,” Stiles supplied at random, causing the other two teenagers to look at him like he had grown another head. “What?” It was true, even if they didn't want to admit it.

   Scott sighed before continuing. “Why can’t you just find him yourself?” Derek looked at the boy like he was the biggest idiot on the planet, which he kind of was at the moment. “Why can’t you just sniff him out when he’s a human?”

   “Because his human scent could be entirely different. It has to be one of you. You have a connection with him, a link that the two of you can’t understand. If I can teach you to control your abilities, you can find him.”

   Scott paused for a moment to think, as did Stiles. “So if we help you, you can stop him?”

   “Not alone, we’re stronger in numbers.” Then why isn’t Cora here, Stiles thought but didn’t voice. “A pack makes the individual more powerful.”

   “How am I supposed to help if I have no idea what I’m doing? Stiles included.”

   “Because I’m gonna teach you. Do you remember what happened that first night you were shot in the arm? Right after you were hit?” Derek started slowly coming down the stairs.

   “Yeah, I changed back.”

   “Mmm-hmm. And when you were hit with his car, the same thing, right?” Scott nodded; Derek was now standing in front of him. “What’s the common denominator?” When Scott didn’t answer Derek grabbed him by his wrist twisting it. Stiles' eyes widened in slight horror. When he heard the snap of Scott’s now broken hand and wrist he stepped in pushing Derek back towards the stairs and away from Scott.

   “It’s pain, Jesus dude,” Stiles said, answering for Scott whose wrist and hand were already almost back to normal.

   “What the hell was that?” Scott complained, still kneeling on the ground in pain.

   “It’ll heal,” Derek responded as if nothing had happened.

   “It still hurts.” There was a small growl under Scott’s that caused Stiles to turn and cross his arms over his chest defensively in case Scott tried to do something worse to Derek.

   “And that’s what keeps you human. Pain, like Stiles said.” Scott’s hand was now fully healed. “Mabey you will survive,” Derek told Scott before going upstairs.

   “You just sit there and let him do that?” Scott was now looking at Stiles.

   “I didn’t let him do shit. Despite my opinions concerning Derek, I don’t necessarily agree with his methods. Go home so I can talk to him. I’ll do the same with you later. Maybe I can knock some sense into both of you idiots.” Scott huffed and turned around muttering curses under his breath as he walked out of the decrepit building.

   Sighing to himself Stiles made his way upstairs when he couldn’t hear Scott anymore. He listened for Derek’s heartbeat to make sure the older teen was in the same room he was in the other day. When he got to the door he knocked even though he knows that Derek heard him coming. Stiles was giving him one more chance to tell him to leave.

   Derek just grunted so Stiles went into the room. He didn’t know exactly how to start the conversation so he went with the question he had earlier.

   “Why isn’t Cora here?” Derek just shot him a confused look from the mattress he was currently laying on. “Earlier you said, “we’re stronger in numbers.” If that’s true, why is it that Cora has barely been involved in anything going on?”

   “She said she didn’t want to be. That the world we have no choice but to be a part of -the supernatural world- has ruined our lives enough, taken everyone we cared about. She doesn’t want to let this prevent her from living a decent life, a good life. And frankly, I think keeping her out of all this is for the best too.” A swirl of emotions erupted behind Derek’s eyes before he closed them. “She told me that she doesn’t want me to do this, but that she’s not going to stop me either. We both think someone needs to pay for Laura’s death, for our entire family, but she doesn’t want to lose herself because of it.”

   “What about Scott?”

   “What about him?”

   “That’s the same thing he wants. To have a normal life. To not let this new part of him consume all he has.” He knew it wasn’t the same. Derek and Cora had been werewolves their whole lives. Scott had only been one for less than a month.

   “He can’t have a normal life, none of us can. The best we can do is hope for a good one. That’s what Cora wants. She wants a better life, one that's not like what we have now. What Scott needs to learn, what you both need to learn is that no matter what, normal is no longer an option. It disappeared when you were bitten. Scott is having far greater difficulty accepting that than you are, he’s too stubborn for his own good. From what I’ve been able to tell Scott’s the type of person that will throw a hissy fit when he doesn’t get his way, and he’s willing to take anyone down with him if it means otherwise.” As much as he wanted to defend his friend he couldn’t deny that this had happened a few times throughout their friendship. For example, when he and Heather had started to become close again Scott started giving Stiles the silent treatment until he and Heather stopped talking as much again.

   “And I know he’s your best friend, Stiles, but if he can’t get any of that through his thick ass skull, then I’ll beat it into him if I have to. And as you have said you don’t agree with that methodology. But I also know that you don’t want to be the one to guide him through this even if you have a good handle on your control.”

   “You’re right I don’t. But I’m also willing to do it if absolutely necessary. And trust me I know how stubborn Scott can be, but I also know the more you use violence and scare tactics the more he’ll resent you. That’s not exactly the most productive work environment.” Derek huffed out an angry sigh but nodded. “But I’m still willing to learn from you.”

   “Really?” Stiles wasn’t fond of how disbelieving Derek sounded.

   “Yes, really. You’ve been doing this your entire life. I think you’re the most qualified person around to help us learn that stuff.” Derek made a see-saw motion with his hand. “Plus if I think you’re being too mean or something I can just tell Cora. I’m sure she’d be willing to beat you up for me.” The snort Derek made seemed to surprise him, and Stiles burst out laughing when Derek covered his face.

   “Shut up,” he growled, which only made Stiles laugh harder. “You gonna check that.” Stiles stopped laughing and looked at Derek with confusion. Derek rolled his eyes and pointed at the fox’s pocket.

   When Stiles felt a vibration come from the pocket he realized Derek was talking about his phone. He pulled it out and saw a couple of messages from his dad.

Daddio: Should be home soon, just gotta finish up some paperwork.

Daddio: On my way.

Daddio: You still at Scott’s Kiddo?

   Stiles Checked the time to see it was almost 1 a.m. “Shit,” he whispered to himself. “It’s my dad. I told him I was going to Scott’s earlier. He wants to know if I’m still there.”

   “Oh, cool. See you later.”

   “Yeah. Don’t sleep here dude it’s kind of… unsanitary.” He didn’t know what other word to use because everything else he could come up with sounded rude and disrespectful.

   “I’m fine.” Derek hesitated before saying, “Don’t forget to talk some sense into McCall too.” He regretted it as soon as he said it until he heard Stiles laugh.

   “Yeah. Sure thing dude.” Stiles sent a text to his dad letting him know he was on his way before leaving and running as fast as he could out of the preserve because it still freaked him out.

BREAK

Highlighting the passage in his chemistry textbook with the cap in his mouth Stiles' attention was currently miles away from class. Any time he would try to focus on the words in front of him his mind would drift back to last night.

   Last night on his way through the preserve Stiles heard a growl. He stopped dead in his tracks when it happened and turned around to ironically find an actual mountain lion. What was weird though was that when it saw him the large cat only stopped for a few seconds before moving on as nothing had happened. He had expected it to attack or chase him at the very least (he was glad it didn’t though because he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to outrun it considering cougars reach max speeds of 50 mph or 80ish km per hour and while he could run fast now he didn't think he could run that fast).

   Stiles was pulled out of his thoughts of the strange mountain lion by Harris talking at the back of the class where he was observing the rest of the room. “Just a friendly reminder, parent/teacher conferences are tonight.” Stiles rolled his eyes at that considering he was pretty sure the man would make him seem like a horrible student to his dad. “Students below a C average are required to attend.” Harris started walking up the row of desks and Stiles was doing his best to ignore the man considering he had a B+ in this class. “I won’t name you because the shame and self-disgust should be more than enough punishment.”

   “Has anyone seen Scott McCall?” Stiles hadn’t realized Harris stopped at his desk to ask the question nor that the man was currently staring at the top of his head.

   When the silence started to stretch Stiles looked up and met Harris’ eyes. The man raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the marker cap Sticking out of his mouth. Stiles could smell the annoyance on the man and hear the accusation he had used in his voice.

   Stiles was saved having to answer when a pale and fear-soaked Jackson walked into the class and sat down grabbing the teacher’s attention. “Hey, Jackson. If you need to leave early for any reason, you let me know.” The calm, understanding and slightly caring voice coming from Harris was slightly off-putting.

   Jackson nodded and Harris went to stand in the front of the classroom. “Everyone, start reading chapter nine.” The man paused at the front before continuing. “Mr. Stilinski. Try putting the highlighter down between paragraphs. It’s chemistry, not a coloring book.” And he’s back, Stiles thought as he spits out the cap into the air before catching it while Danny snickered in front of him.

   Stiles tried focusing on the work but the constant fear and sickness coming from Jackson were overwhelming his senses. He wanted to know what was going on with Jackson so he used the best resource he had.

   “Hey, Danny. Can I ask you a question?”

   “No.” Stiles really wanted to know why Danny disliked him.

   “Well, I’m going to anyway.” He was going to ask about Jackson first but a certain fiery redhead popped into his head at the moment. “Um, did Lydia show up in your homeroom today?”

   “No,” he responded

   “Can I ask you another question?”

   “Answer's still no.”

   “Does anyone know what happened to her in Jackson last night?” Danny seemed to think for a second before answering hesitantly.

   “He wouldn’t tell me.”

   “But he’s your best friend.” Danny just shrugged not knowing what to think of it either. “One more question,” Stiles said while starting to lean forward.

   “What?” The other teenager was getting increasingly more agitated but because no one answered him the other day he figured now was his chance for an answer.

   “Do you find me attractive?” Danny's scent automatically changed to confused and thoughtful with a slight tinge of embarrassment. The boy opened his mouth once to try and answer but closed it again not knowing what to say. Stiles ended up leaning too far forward in his chair, almost falling on his ass while his chin hit Danny’s arm.

   Fixing his chair and trying to ignore the few looks the incident had caused Stile pulled out his phone. He wanted answers but there was no way Jackson would give them to Stiles and he knew it so he had a different idea.

User: I think Jackson saw something last night. Lydia too.

User: I tried to ask Danny if he knew anything but he doesn’t.

Murder-brows: Who’s Danny?

User: Jackson’s best friend.

User: Anyway, I was hoping you could intimidate some answers out of Jackson while I try Lydia.

User: If not try and sic Cora on him. She’s scarier than you most of the time.

Murder-brows: Again, Cora’s trying to stay out of this as much as possible. I’ll try and see what I can find with Jackson if anything.

User: Great. I’ll let you know if I find anything with Lydia.

   Stiles didn’t have a chance to see if Derek had responded because he had been caught. Harris came over and snatched the phone out of his hands. “I’ll be giving this to your father during the parent/teacher conference, Mr. Stilinski. Maybe that will teach you not to text in my class.”

BREAK

Derek could smell the younger teen from outside the locker room. The slight tinge of pain and sickness coming from him reminded Derek of the other day when he had to deal with the wolfsbane poisoning him. That’s when he remembered the incident with the claws.

   When the last person exited the locker room leaving only Jackson he went in. When Jackson saw Derek the fear that the teen already reeked of became increasingly stronger and the boy cowered against the lockers.

   “I-I don’t know where Scott and Stiles are.” The boy was almost shaking with how scared he was.

   “I’m not here for them. I’m here for you.”

   “W-Wh-Why me? I d-didn’t do anything.”

   “No, but you saw something, didn’t you?” Derek didn’t think the teen would be this scared if he hadn’t.

   “No, I didn’t… I didn’t see anything.” Lie, he thought when he heard what he was sure was a slight tick up in the frantic heartbeat.

   “What was it? An animal? A mountain lion?”

   “I didn’t see anything. I swear. I’m-I’m not lying.”

   “Then calm down and say it again.” While Derek thought he had heard a tick he still didn’t know for sure.

   “S-Say what? That I’m not lying?”

   “Tell me that you didn’t see anything. Slowly.”

   “I didn’t see anything. I’m not lying.” Derek didn’t hear an uptick in the heartbeat again.

   “One more thing,” Derek said before grabbing onto Jackson’s hair and angling the teen’s head to examine the claw marks he accidentally left, not really bothering to be gentle. Luckily they didn’t seem infected. “You should really get that checked out.” Then he left hoping that Stiles would have better luck with Lydia.

BREAK

Stiles really hated Harris right now. Not only could he not contact Derek about Jackson but he also couldn’t talk to Scott and find out wherever he ran off to. It probably had something to do with Allison considering he hadn’t seen her all day either.

   Right now he had a job to do. Find out what the hell happened at the video store last night. The way to do that was Lydia. He was honestly surprised Jackson showed up if Lydia didn’t. You would think seeing a dead body would warrant at least a day or two off of school. Anyway, now to find Lydia.

BREAK

   “Hello,” Ms. Martin said as she opened the door.

   “Oh, um, hi Ms. Martin. I’m Stiles Stilinski, I go to school with your daughter, Lydia.” This was awkward even by Stiles’ standards. “Uh, she wasn’t in class today, and I’m well aware of what, uh, happened last night. I just wanted to pop by and see if Lydia was okay.” He cringed at the last sentence.

   “Oh well, that was rather thoughtful of you. She's just upstairs. Why don’t you come in and say hello.”

   “Uh, sure.” Ms. Martin beckoned him inside and closed the door before leading him to Lydia’s room. When Ms. Martin knocked on the door Stiles heard Lydia hum in response before her mom opened the door slightly.

   “Honey, there’s a Stiles here to see you.” Ms. Martin told her daughter who smelled heavily of mediation.

   “What the hell is a ‘Stiles’?” Lydia mumbled.

   “She took a little something to ease her nerves,” Ms. Martin told him and Stiles just nodded along having figured it out as soon as the door opened. “You can… You can go in.”

   “Thanks.” Ms. Martin just turned around and left the room leaving the door open of course.

   “What are you doing here?” Lydia asked from her place on the bed.

   “I was just making sure you were okay.” While that wasn’t the main reason it still was one.

   “Why!?” Lydia asked rather enthusiastically before patting the bed to tell him to sit down.

   “Because I was worried about you today?” He left the whole ‘I want to know what you saw last night’ bit out. “How are you feeling?”

   Lydia grabbed onto Stiles' bicep and squeezed it a couple of times. “I feel fantastic,” she slurred while leaning closer to Stiles’ face and he could smell small amounts of arousal coming from the girl, which was weird considering Lydia doesn't even know he existed before now and probably won't after this encounter either with how high she is.

   Stiles chuckled slightly before he noticed the meds on her nightstand. It was strong stuff too. “I bet you can’t say “I saw Suzy sittin’ in a shoeshine shop” ten times fast.” She looked at him with slight frustration at his challenge.

   “I saw Shuzie… I shaw… I saw…” Lydia said the last one in a slightly fearful voice, he could smell it too.

   “What? Lydia, what did you see?” He figured maybe this drugged-out state would get him some answers. Well, more than the usual state where she barely acknowledged his presence.

   “Something.”

   “Something like… Like a mountain lion?”

   “A mountain lion.”

   “Are you sure you saw a mountain lion, or are you just saying that because that’s what the police told you?” It was a valid question. The police had been telling everyone that the recent deaths around town had all been cougar attacks. It wouldn’t be surprising if they convinced Lydia that whatever she saw was a mountain lion too, even if it most definitely was not.

   “A mountain lion,” she repeated.

   Stiles reached over and switched the pills he grabbed for the stuffed giraffe on the nightstand. “What’s this?”

   Lydia whipped her head around to look at the stuffed animal. “A mountain lion,” she said again.

   “Okay,” he said before putting the giraffe back. “You’re so drunk.” Then Lydia placed a hand on his thigh before promptly passing out with her forehead in the same position as her hand. “And I’m stuck.”

   It didn’t take long for Lydia to wake back up and move and as soon as she did Stiles got off the bed. Even if he was only trapped for about ten minutes he didn’t want it to happen again.

   “Well, I’m gonna go,” He told Lydia. “Uh, I’ll let you get back to the whole post-traumatic stress thing.”

   “Stay,” Lydia said before Stiles could close the door and get out of there like he so desperately wanted to do.

   “Me?” he asked hesitantly. “Stay? You want me to stay?” Lydia nodded and patted the bed again while making a bunch of “mmm-hmm” sounds.

   Stiles sat back on the bed slowly and skeptically. Given the chemosignals the girl was giving off she didn’t exactly want him to stay for pure reasons, for lack of a better word. He was very much prepared to shut her down though. He may still have had a slight crush on the strawberry-blonde goddess but she was still really high. Not only would that be massively inappropriate and disrespectful -and just something that shouldn’t happen in the first place- but it would also likely end with him being arrested and thrown into some kind of prison or juvenile center.

   “Yes, please,” Lydia mumbled with a slight pout before grabbing his face. He’s not going to lie in that he was completely frozen. “Stay. Please. Jackson.”

   “Yeah. No.” Even though nothing was going to happen (cause again, NO), Lydia just made sure of it by saying that jerk wad’s name. She then fell backward on her bed before passing out again.

   Stiles was about to leave, again, before Lydia’s phone went off. “You want me to get that?” he asked the girl's sleeping form. Giving in to his curiosity Stiles grabbed the phone of the nightstand. He turned it on to see a text notification. “It’s a text.” He clicked on the little pop-up but nothing happened. “I don’t know how to…” He stopped at the video that started playing.

   It started with something jumping out of a window and shattering it. The end of the video stopped on the face of what looked like a monster with slightly red eyes. It was the alpha.

   He had to tell Derek.

BREAK

   When he got to the Hale house the first thing he smelled was wolfsbane. He ran up to the front porch and then he heard a female voice inside.

   “Wow. This one grew up in all the right places.” The comment made him growl to himself.

   He was about to run in, maybe attack the bitch hurting Derek, and try to get the older teen to safety. But when he was about to barge in the front down he heard a faint “no” in Derek’s voice.

   “I don’t know whether to kill it or lick it.” Stiles was torn. He wanted to go in and help Derek but the man told him not to. He could tell the lady was likely a skilled hunter so if he interfered both he and Derek would likely end up worse off. That still didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try and save the werewolf if necessary.

   He could hear electricity as Derek struggled to move away from the woman. It took almost everything in him not to run into the house when he heard her zap Derek. The only thing that kept him back was when Derek muttered the word “don’t”.

   The huntress started to laugh and he could tell from out here that she enjoyed torturing Derek in more ways than one. It made him sick.

   “900,000 volts,” she spoke. “You never were good with electricity, were you?” Stiles’ face twisted in confusion. “Or fire.” That bitch, he thought and he could feel his fangs start to lengthen. “Which is why I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. And, well, maybe we can help each other out.

   Yes, your sister was severed into pieces and used as bait to try to catch you.” Now Stiles' claws were starting to come out. “Unpleasant, and frankly, a little too Texas Chainsaw Massacre for my taste, but quite true. Now here’s the part that might really kick you in your balls. We didn’t kill her.” Stiles' brain briefly stopped functioning due to confusion. “You think I’m lying?” Why wouldn’t he, hunters had killed almost all of Derek’s family?

   “Wouldn’t be the first time.” Derek managed to get out. Stiles really wanted to know what was going on there.

   The woman just clicked her tongue. “Sweetie… Well, why don’t you just listen to my heart and tell me if I am? Okay? We… didn’t… kill… your sister.” Stiles' heart dropped. She wasn’t lying. That only left one person. “Do you hear that? There are no blips or upticks. Just the steady beat of the cold hard truth.

   Found bite marks on your sister’s body, Derek. What do you think did that? A mountain lion? Why aren’t we helping each other out? You might as well admit what you’ve been guessing all along, which is, the alpha killed your sister. And all you have to do is tell us who he is, and we’ll take care of him for you. Problem solved, everybody goes home happy. Unless,” She said when Derek didn’t speak, “you don’t know who he is either. Wow. Guess who just became totally useless?” Then the shooting started.

   Stiles was ready to go in and save Derek when the man in question burst through the front door. Derek only stopped to throw Stiles, who yelped in a rather manly manner, over his shoulder before running as fast as possible away from the house. When they were well enough away from the house Derek dropped Stiles before bending over on his knees to catch his breath.

   Stiles just laid down on the forest floor in shock for a few minutes before deciding to sit up. His mouth then went completely dry when he noticed that Derek was shirtless and did his best to get his hormones under control before the other teen noticed his arousal.

   “Okay, first of all,” Stiles started when Derek seemed to have finally gotten enough air into his lungs, “who the hell was that. Second, how do you know each other? And thirdly, I found something at Lydia’s.”

   “That was Kate Argent.” Of course, it’s another Argent, Stiles thought exasperatedly. “She’s the one who set and orchestrated the fire. Now, what did you get out of Lydia?” Derek asked, trying to change the subject quickly.

   “Well, I didn’t really get anything out of Lydia per se. She was kind of higher than the empire state.” And yes he just quoted the song We Are Young by Fun. don’t judge him. It’s a good song. “But I did find something on her phone.” He then proceeded to pull out said phone.

   “Did you steal her phone?”

   “Misappropriated,” he corrected.

   “Same thing.”

   “Uh, no. My version sounds cooler, so ha. Plus, I’m going to give it back I just, need to find out a way how.” Derek rolled his eyes at the young fox’s antics. “Anyway, Lydia got a text, and when I went to see what it was -which yes I am aware is a massive invasion of her privacy- I accidentally pulled up this.” He pulled up the video from earlier and showed it to Derek. He watched the older teen's expression go from confused, to shocked, and finally land on anger and determination.

   “One question before we get into that.” He gestured at Lydia’s phone. "Why didn’t you just send the video to your own phone?”

   “Harris, the asshole, took it from me when I was texting you earlier. I wasn’t just gonna sit around and wait before I could access the video and show it to you and Scott. Plus he's giving the phone to my dad at the parent/teacher conferences and I don't want him seeing the video if he decides to go snooping.”

   “Well send the video to me real quick and then delete it off Lydia’s phone.” Stiles did as Derek said before deleting the video and putting away the phone. Now just to get it back to Lydia. Maybe he could find a way to put it in her car or something.

   Stiles was pulled out of his scheming planning when he heard Derek starting to walk away and Stiles quickly followed the werewolf. “So do, like, wanna talk about what happened?”

   “No.”

   “Okay. Then, how about why you’re not wearing a shirt?” He asked before saying in a totally and completely discreet way, “Not that I’m complaining,” and failing to notice the other teen blush slightly at the comment.

   “I was working out when Kate attacked,” Derek mumbled in reply.

   “And you thought the best way to do that was while wearing a pair of jeans but not a shirt?” The fellow beta just glared at him. Stiles chuckled slightly before stopping when he realized they were where Stiles parked the Jeep. “Hey, you want a ride or something, to wherever is closest to your house.”

   Derek shook his head in response. “I‘ve got the camaro not too far from here. Plus I have to get ready for the parent/teacher conferences. I’m stepping in since Laura would have been the one to do it and Cora isn’t always the best-behaved student.”

   “Well, okay. See you later dude,” he said before hopping in the jeep.

   “Later. And don’t call me dude.”

BREAK

   Derek was currently waiting outside of Finstock’s office. He was the last teacher he had to get through before this nightmare ended. Inside he could hear Coach talking to Stiles' dad, who had gone in to talk with the other man right when Derek got there.

   Derek liked the Sheriff despite everything that happened. The man had raised Stiles and he seemed to turn out all right. Well, as alright as Stiles could be anyway.

   Out of boredom and slight curiosity, Derek tuned into the conversation. “- Stiles, that’s right. I thought ‘Stiles’ was his last name,” he heard Coach say.

   “His last name is ‘Stilinski.’”

   “You named your kid ‘Stiles Stilinski?’”

   “No that’s just what he likes to be called.”

   “Oh. Well, I like to be called ‘Cupcake.’ What is his first name?” Honestly, Derek was curious too. He heard several substitutes in the classes they shared try and say it or just give up and use his last name. But he’s never actually heard the name in completion or pronounced correctly. He heard the Sheriff move some papers around before tapping on the desk. “Wow, that’s a form of child abuse. I don’t… I don’t even know how to pronounce that.” Now Derek was really curious.

   “It was his mother’s father’s name,” the sheriff explained."

   “Wow! You must really love your wife.”

   “Yeah, I did.” Derek winced and remembered that first full moon when Stiles told him about his mom.

   “Well, this just became incredibly awkward.”

   “Hey, what do you say we get to the conference part of this conference, Cupcake?” Well, at least he knew where Stiles got some of his snarky attitude from.

   “I like your thinking. So, Stiles. Great kid. Zero ability to focus.” If only any of them knew how focused Stiles was on researching the Hale fire right now. “Super smart. Never takes advantage of his talents.”

   “How do you mean?”

   “Well, for his final question on his midterm exam, he detailed the entire history of the male circumcision.” Derek let out an involuntary snort.

   “Well, I mean, it does have historical significance, right?”

   “I teach economics.” Derek let out a bark (ha, dog jokes) of laughter before clamping a hand over his mouth.

   Not long after that, the meeting between Sheriff Stilinski and coach Finstock had ended and when he checked his phone he noticed the Parent/teacher conferences, in general, were over. As he was about to leave when the Sheriff came out of Coach’s office.

   “Hale.” The Sheriff sounded slightly surprised to see Derek who was currently frozen where he was standing.

   “Sir,” he croaked.

   “Relax, Hale. It’s not like I’m going to arrest you. Again,” he added as an afterthought. “So what are you doing here?” They started to walk away from Coach’s office.

   “The parent/teacher conferences. Normally Laura would do this but-” The sheriff gave him a slight smile and patted him on the shoulder.

   “I’m really sorry about your loss. I’m also sorry about the trouble my son got you in. You didn’t deserve that. Even if you did technically tamper with a crime scene, I get wanting to put your sister to rest.”

   “It’s alright. Stiles came to me and apologized. He also said it was more his friend Scott’s fault than his own. But he still apologized. Even offered to make it up to me.” He didn’t actually do that but the older man didn’t need to know that. He was pretty sure Stiles was still going to try even if he didn’t explicitly say he was.

   “That’s good. I’m glad he apologized even if he did shift most of the blame on Scott.” They were now out of the building. “And you make sure he lives up to his offer.” The sheriff seemed like he was about to split away but he hesitated and asked something else. “Scott didn’t happen to apologize too, did he. He was still a part of that whole mess. And his mother would be disappointed to find out if he didn’t.” Derek gave the man a sad look.

   “No sir. Sorry, but he never did.” The man let out a downhearted sigh.

   “I’m sorry again for all the trouble those boys caused you. How about I walk you to your car to apologize for my involvement in the whole thing.”

   “No, it’s really okay. You were just doing your job sir.”

   “Nonsense. It’s the least I could do.” The sheriff smiled at Derek and patted him on the back but the tone he used, while nice and encouraging, was stern and left no room for argument. It reminded him of the voice his mom used to use to try and get everyone to bond as a family.

   While walking to the chevy they heard someone scream and then several more screams as several people started to run around the parking lot to get to their cars. Both of them started to look around to try and find the source of what was scaring people. Several People were now leaving the school parking lot in a panic. Not too far away Derek heard a growl and decided to follow it but the Sheriff was walking the other way.

   When Derek turned around and saw the Sheriff multiple cars away he ran over to the man knowing Stiles would probably kill him if he could prevent his father from getting hurt and something still happened to the man. On his way over to the Sheriff, he saw Scott on the opposite side of the row of cars. Scott suddenly rushed off when Allison almost got hit by a car. Derek still didn’t understand the other wolf’s obsession with the girl.

   He turned back to see the Sheriff now running before chasing after the man. Before he could make it a car accidentally backed into the sheriff. Derek was by his side in almost an instant. He could tell something was wrong with the sheriff’s leg and probably his back too and started to drain the pain.

   “Are you okay?” Derek asked the man.

   “I’m fine,” The sheriff then reached for a gun he had in a holster on his ankle. Derek then looked up to see Scott not even five feet away still coddling Allison. Then they heard the gunshot.

   Doing a once over Derek made sure the Sheriff was okay before helping him up and going over to where he heard the shot’s coming from. They then saw Chris Argent lowering a gun and in front of him was a dying mountain lion.

   One thing was certain. They couldn’t cover up the alpha’s crimes as animal attacks anymore.

Chapter Text

“You’re dead,” Derek told a near pants-wetting Scott.

   For a training and control exercise, he had decided to surprise Scott by chasing him through the parking garage near a grocery store. At first, the younger wolf was doing okay by his standards. As soon as Scott was aware of the threat he ran in the opposite direction (unlike a certain werefox) and tried to hide. It, of course, didn’t take Derek to catch up to him but when Scott noticed this he started jumping on the hoods of cars to set off their alarms. Derek was temporarily stunned for a few seconds, the loud horns of the cars hurting his ears. He recovered quickly but he had lost enough time to lose the other wolf and with the blaring car alarms it was hard to make out any heartbeats. He was actually okay with losing Scott but then he heard a cell phone ringing which led him to the beta before he threw him onto the hood of a nearby car.

   “Wh-What the hell was that?” Scott said, scrambling after Derek who was walking away.

   “Said I was gonna teach you. I didn’t say when.” Derek thought the method of surprise would be best. They didn’t know when or where the alpha would decide to make his move so this was the best course of action to make sure Scott was prepared.

   “You scared the crap out of me!” Scott complained.

   Derek spared the other teen a slight glance while continuing to walk. “Not yet,” he responded smugly knowing he could do a lot worse if he tried.

   “Okay, but I was fast right?”

   “Not fast enough.” He wasn’t and Scott would need to be a lot faster in the future.

   “But the car alarm thing, that was smart, right?” It was, and it was also probably the smartest thing the other beta had done since Derek had met him, but it still failed.

   “Till your phone rang.” Which is where Scott’s plan had failed.

   “Yeah, but that was… I mean…” Scott stuttered, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse. “Would you just stop? Please?” Derek rolled his eyes but complied and turned around to face the beta. “What happened the other night, Stiles’ dad getting hurt, that was my fault. I should have been there to do something. I need you to teach me to control this.”

   “Look, I am what I am because of birth. You were bitten. Teaching someone who was bitten takes time,” Derek tried to explain. “I don’t even know if I can teach you.” He wasn’t lying either. Training new wolves, and betas was an alpha's job and Laura was supposed to inherit the alpha power so she would have been the one to teach Scott and Stiles, not him.

   “What do I have to do?” Scott asked, desperate for even some semblance of control.

   “You have to get rid of distractions.” Derek grabbed the other werewolf’s phone before showing him the screen with an alert that said Scott had a missed call from Allison. “You see this? This is why I caught you. You want me to teach you? Get rid of her.”

   “What just because of her family.” Derek didn’t get why Scott seemed to think the Argents could do no wrong. Chris Argent had shot him with a crossbow on the full moon and Derek told him about what they did to his family and yet still they were angels in the other teen's eyes. So while the fact that Allison was an Argent is not the main reason Scott should stay away from her it’s definitely in the top three. So Derek decided, fuck it, if this kid wouldn’t listen to logic and reason then he would make him see it. He changed his grip on the phone before throwing it at one of the concrete walls of the parking garage causing it to shatter with Scott protesting through the entire process.

   “You getting angry? That’s your first lesson. You want to learn how to control this, how to shift, you do it through anger,” Derek instructed, “by tapping into a primal animal rage, and you can’t do that with her around.”

   “I can get angry,” Scott growled.

   “Not angry enough! This is the only way that I can teach you.” He knew Stiles said not to take the angry and or violent approach with Scott but he didn’t know another way. It was how he was taught and he was going to try and use what little knowledge he had to make the situation at least a little better.

   “What about Stiles, huh?” the younger wolf asked, trying to get Derek to move away from the topic of him and Allison. “Why aren’t you doing this kind of thing with him? He clearly needs to learn control too, with how he almost ripped my hand off the other week.”

   “He only did that because you were threatening me, and despite that one incident, he has almost perfect control compared to you,” Derek defended, not getting how Stiles' ‘best friend’ could basically insult the werefox so he didn’t have to take as much of the heat. “Plus even if he didn’t I would still have to worry about you first. Werefoxes naturally have better control than wolves, bitten or not. That and the other mystery side of him-”

   “Wait what do you mean 'mystery side of him'?” Scott interrupted.

   “Stiles isn’t just a werefox,” he informed the other beta, trying not to be too smug about the fact that Stiles hadn’t told Scott about this. “Amber eyes represent the fox, not purple. The fact that he has both purple and amber eyes means that not only is Stiles a shapeshifter, but he is also another supernatural creature we have yet to figure out.” And they had been trying, getting as much time researching as they could while dealing with everything else.

   “And you think this other side of him is responsible for how much control he has?” Derek simply nodded, not seeing another explanation other than the fact that werefoxes tend to have a better grasp on their control.

   “Now, can you stay away from Allison?” the older wolf asked, trying to get back on track. “At least until after the full moon?”

   “If that’s what it takes.”

   “Do you want to live? Do you want to protect your friends? Yes or no?”

   “Yes,” Scott responded automatically. “If you can teach me, I can stay away from her.”

BREAK

   Scott barged into his bedroom and shut the door behind himself. Out of breath he leaned with his back against the door and closed his eyes to try and calm down. When he opened his eyes he noticed his window was open and rushed over to close and lock it before pulling down the blinds. He looked out the window to make sure the Alpha wasn’t waiting outside for him again.

   Scott turned on the lamp near the window and jumped when he saw Derek sitting in the chair in the corner of the room and very peeved Stiles on the bed next to the older wolf. “You seriously need to stop doing that,” Scott told Derek. “Why the hell are you two even here?”

   “After you somehow called Stiles,” he used a payphone, “he called me. After I said he had to come too he refused so I stopped by his house on the way and dragged his ass over here. So what happened?” Derek asked, getting straight to the point. “Did he talk to you?”

   “Yeah. We had a nice conversation about the weather.” Scott saw a slight twitch at the corner of his best friend’s mouth at his sarcasm. “No, he didn’t talk!”

   “Well, did you get anything off of him? An impression.”

   “What do you mean?” Stiles rolled his eyes at the fact that Scott had already forgotten one of the first things Derek had taught him.

   Derek let out a sigh and stood up. “Remember, your other senses are heightened. Communication doesn’t have to be spoken. What kind of feeling did you get from him?”

   Scott paused to think for a second. “Anger.”

   “Focused on you?”

   “No not… Not me. But it was definitely anger. I could feel it. Especially when he drew the spiral.” Both Derek and Stiles had a reaction to that but for different reasons.

   “Wait, the what? What did you just say?” Stiles visibly reacted to Derek, both because of the worry and slight fear and his scent and the way his eyebrows were saying they probably should be worried too, by slowly starting to get off the bed.

   “He drew the spiral on the window of my car, in the condensation, you know?” The confirmation only seemed to trigger the older teen more and Stiles was now fully off the bed and inching over to Derek.

  “What?” Scott asked at the new facial expression. “You have this look on your face like you know what it means.”

   “No, it’s… It’s nothing.” Derek moved around Scott and started heading towards the bedroom door. Both Stiles and Scott were quick to follow, the former glaring (and growling slightly) at his friend when he blocked his path to Derek.

   Scott didn’t know what his best friend’s obsession with protecting Derek was but he really wanted it to stop. He knew he had a crush on the guy and all but this was getting a little out of hand in his opinion.

   “Wait, wait, wait a second. You can’t do that. You can’t ask me to trust you and then just keep things to yourself.” Stiles grunted his agreement and turned a less heated glare on the older werewolf.

   “Doesn’t mean anything,” Derek told them, once again moving to open the bedroom door. Both of the newly turned betas could hear the small blip in Derek’s heart.

   “You buried your sister under a spiral. What does it mean?” Stiles was giving Derek a slightly pleading look over Scott’s shoulder, wanting to know what Derek was hiding and why, mainly why he was hiding it from him. It was taking a lot of control for him not to give in.

   Derek huffed out a breath and looked at the younger teenagers before telling them, “You don’t want to know,” patting Scott on the shoulder but giving Stiles an apologetic look before turning to leave. Stiles was quick to follow, moving Scott out of his way with a small shove and basically running after the other beta.

BREAK

   Stiles plopped down at his desk waiting for class to start so he could hurry up and get this day done with sooner rather than later. He was dreading when Scott came in and he was still angry about what happened the night of the parent/teacher conference. He got that Scott couldn’t save his dad from the car he really did, hell Derek was closer to the man than Scott was and he still couldn’t stop it. What he was angry about was that Scott didn’t bother to help him afterward. He had the opportunity, Derek said he saw when Scott noticed the sheriff on the ground, and yet he did nothing. Didn’t even bother to ask if the man was okay.

   Stiles noticed Scott by the classroom door looking at him like a kicked puppy. Stiles just glared at him in return as he walked toward the row of seats and sat behind him. Well, Stiles still wasn’t going to talk to him so he could deal for now.

   “Still not talking to me?” Scott sighed. “Can you at least tell me if your dad’s okay? I mean it’s just a bruise, right? Some soft tissue damage? Nothing that big?” Stiles stayed silent. “You know I feel really bad about it, right?” Stiles was wondering how the wolf didn’t smell the anger and frustration coming off of him. “What if I told you that I’m trying to figure this thing out, and… That I went to Derek for help.”

   “If I was talking to you I would say you’re an idiot for not trying to learn control sooner. But I’m not talking to you.” Stiles barely lasted ten seconds before he caved. “What did he say?”

   Scott explained things periodically during class. Like the parking lot incident, the main points of learning control, stuff like that. Stiles didn’t like what he was hearing.

   “He wants you to tap into your animal side and get angry?” Stiles said as they left the classroom. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but every time you do that you try to kill someone, and that someone is usually me.”

   Stiles was beyond pissed right now. He had told Derek the angry and violent approach wouldn’t work with Scott. That it would likely leave Scott’s control worse off than it is now. But did the stupid, handsome, idiotic werewolf listen to him? No. He decided to do the exact opposite of what he said. There was a serious talking to in that man’s future.

   “I know. That’s what he means when he says he doesn’t know if he could teach me.” Yeah totally wasn’t that Stiles had told him straight up that this wouldn’t work. “I have to be able to control it.”

   “Well, how’s he going to teach you to do that?” He really needed a viable answer. He really didn’t want to do what he was considering doing.

   “I don’t know. I don’t think he knows either.” Again serious talking to. He might even throw in some life lessons and study sessions on teaching techniques just to be sure.

   “Okay. When are you seeing him again?” Why did he have to be relied on for this shit? He was just as new at all this supernatural stuff as Scott was, newer in fact. Granted only by a day, but his point still stands!

   “He just told me not to talk about it. Just act normal and get through the day.” Some life lessons and study sessions were definitely going to be a part of that talking too.

   “When?” Stiles cuts in before Scott could say anything else. He really doesn’t want to do this, especially with the number of times Scott had asked and he said no, but he really didn’t see any other option.

   “He’s picking me up at the animal clinic after work,” Scott tells him.

   “After work. Alright, well, that gives me till the end of the school day then.”

   “To do what?”

   “To teach you myself.” Scott practically beams when he finally gets what Stiles said.

BREAK

   It took him going to lunch, listening to Allison talking about a serial killer werewolf from that late eighteenth century that her family killed, and Scott pissing him off even more (seriously how has the guy still not seen a single Star Wars movie), but eventually he was able to go get what he would need to help Scott with his control. It might have been acquired through… unconventional means but the important part was that he got it. He just hoped he could put it back by the end of the day.

   Stiles eventually met back up with Scott in the locker room after he ditched him during lunch. Now they were making their way to the field -Stiles carrying a duffle bag and his crosse; Scott not too far behind- to do the first test as well as figuring out if a hypothesis Stiles has is correct.

   “Now…” Stiles said as he placed his stuff down and sat on one of the player benches, rifling through the duffle. “Put this on.”

   “Isn’t this one of the heart rate monitors for the track team?” Scott asked as he took the offered item.

   “Yeah, I borrowed it,” Stiles told him.

   “Stole it,” Scott corrected.

   “Temporarily misappropriated,” the werefox defended. “Coach uses it to monitor his heart rate with his phone while he jogs, and you’re going to wear it for the rest of the day.” Stiles then proceeds to pull out the aforementioned device.

   “Isn’t that Coach's phone?” Scott is quick to point out.

   “That, I stole.” There was no use sugar-coating it this time.

   “Why?” Ah, now comes the hypothesis.

   “All right, well, my heart rate goes up when I wolf out -fox out? Anyway- I figured it would be the same for you.” Scott confirmed with a nod. “When you’re playing lacrosse, when you’re with Allison, whenever you get angry.” And for Stiles, it was for some reason when he, or the fox inside, thought that Derek was in danger or being threatened. “Maybe learning to control your wolf could be done by learning to control your heart rate.”

   “Is that what you do?” the werewolf asks the werefox.

   “No. For some reason, this all just feels kind of natural to me. I mean it took a little while for the fox to speak up but-” Before Stiles could finish Scott interrupted.

   “The fox?” Scot asked, concerned all this supernatural stuff is making him go crazy.

   “Yeah. I mean it hasn’t actually spoken yet -if it even can- or anything it's just kind of made its feelings known every once in a while.” There was a confused/concerned look on Scott’s face. “Is it not like that for you?” Scott shook his head. “I think it’s kind of similar for Derek. I’ll ask him about it later.” Stiles said before getting up and making his way onto the field with his things.

  “Okay,” Scott responded before following Stiles.

   When they were far enough on the field and Scott had put the heart rate monitor on, Stiles set his stuff down and grabbed duct tape out of his duffle. Scott looked at the role of tape questioningly before looking at his friend the same way. Stiles just gave the other beta a small smile with a mischievous glint in his eyes before forcefully turning him around and grabbing his hands and holding them behind Scott’s back. Scott was about to ask Stiles what he was doing when Stiles started to wrap the duct tape around his wrists which only made him even more confused.

   “This isn’t exactly how I wanted to spend my free period,” Scott commented as Stiles put the tape back in the duffle bag.

   “All right,” Stiles said, grabbing his crosse and duffle bag and backing up a few feet. “You ready?”

   “No,” Scott told him, not even sure what was about to happen.

   “Remember, don’t get angry,” he reminded and set his stuff down and opened the heart monitor app on Coach’s phone.

   “I’m starting to think this was a really bad idea,” Scott muttered as Stiles started to pull out a bunch of lacrosse balls and lined them up on the field. Scott let out a groan as the first ball hit him right in the stomach. Stiles laughed before preparing to throw another ball hitting Scott in the jaw this time. “Okay that one kind of hurt,” he told the werefox.

   “Quiet. Remember you’re supposed to be thinking about your heart rate, all right?” Stiles reminded. “About staying calm.”

   “Stay calm. Staying calm. Staying totally calm,” Scott repeated to himself as more balls were thrown at him. The first one missed but the second one hit his left shoulder. “There’s no balls flying at my face…” Scott cut off with another groan when one of the balls hit him in the neck, narrowly missing his throat. Stiles through a couple more balls, all hitting Scott's torso.

   “Son of a bitch,” Scott yelled when another ball hit him in the stomach.

   “You know what? I think this supernatural shit actually works. I’m pretty sure my aim is improving.”

   “Yeah, that’s totally it,” he muttered at his best friend's comment.

   “Ah, buh, buh. Don’t get angry,” Stiles chastised as Scott’s heart rate started to increase to 130 bpm (beats per minute). But he wasn’t going to lie, he was very much enjoying this.

   “I’m not getting angry,” Scott said before another ball hit him in the stomach. The next few balls hit him in the shoulder, chest, stomach, arm, shoulder again, and then his face. “Stop. Just wait. Wait, just hold on,” Scott begged before the next ball hit him in his diaphragm knocking the air out of him and sending him over the edge.

   Scott knelt on the ground, his anger rising and the heart monitor showing his bpm going over 160. Stiles maintained his distance not wanting to get mauled by Scott especially when he ripped off the layers of duct tape around his wrists. Scott started to shift before his heart rate started to go down, Scott having calmed down after he started to get control of his breathing again.

   When Stiles deemed it safe enough to go over he made sure Scott wasn’t in his beta shift before talking. “Scott, you started to change.”

   “From anger,” Scott said between breaths. “But it was more than that. It was like, the angrier I got, the stronger I felt.”

   “So it is anger, then. Derek’s right.” This still didn’t change anything. Just because mister murder-brows was right doesn’t mean Stiles isn’t going to have a talk with him. Hell, he may even enlist Cora for help this time around.

   “I can’t be around Allison.”

   “Just because she makes you happy?”

   “No, because she makes me weak.”

BREAK

   “Alright so you stay away from her for a few days,” Stiles said, like it wasn’t a big deal -because it wasn’t- as they neared their lockers in the boys' locker room. “You can do that.” Should do that, was more like it. And not just because Allison 'made him weak' or whatever.

   “But is it a few days or is it forever?” Scott asked as Stiles put his stuff up.

   “You know, this whole ‘women make you weak’ thing is a little too Spartan warrior for me.” Sure, he liked Derek, but he used to like Lydia. And he’s not going to lie, if the opportunity presented itself he would probably still go out with her; not that it ever would (but then again the opportunity to date Derek probably wouldn’t ever happen either). “It’s probably just part of the learning process.”

   “Yeah, but you’ve seen Derek. I mean the guy’s totally alone.” Only romantically, Stiles thought.

   “Dude, he has a sister.” He’d also like to say that Derek has him but he doesn’t really think that qualifies in this situation.

   ‘What if I can, like, never be around her again?” Scott complained, totally ignoring Stiles’ comment.

   “Well, if you’re not dead, that could be a good thing,” Stiles pointed out, seeing as Allison was an Argent and it could very likely happen.

   “I’d rather be dead.” Stiles had to stop himself from rolling his eyes or facepalming at his friend’s stupidity.

   “You’re not gonna end up alone, all right? We’ll figure it out,” the werefox reassured.

   “Okay.” Scott still sounded a little sad but it was better than nothing.

   “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” Stiles suggested.

   “Something smells terrible in here, anyway,” Scott said as he grabbed his backpack and they started to make their way out of the locker room.

   “Really? In a boy’s locker room? That doesn’t make any sense at all.”

   “No, it’s like something's rotting or dying.” He agreed of course, after all, he could smell it too, but Stiles still didn’t see how that made what he said any less true.

BREAK

   “Let’s go. Sit, sit, sit, sit. We got a lot to cover today. Let’s go,” Coach said as the bell rang and everyone made their way to their seats. Free period was over so Stiles really doubted he could help teach Scott more control by the time school was over.

   “Hey, Stiles. Sit behind me dude,” Scott whispered when he saw Allison making her way over. When Stiles noticed as well he was quick to try and scramble over, but Allison was quicker. As soon as his foot was on the seat she slammed her things down on the desk forcing him to go back over to his original seat. Allison just gave him a nice “hey” before sitting down Scott on the other hand was sending him a pleading look which Stiles could only shrug to in response and sit down.

   “Hey,” Allison repeated, this time it was directed towards Scott.

   “Hey,” Scott responded.

   “I haven’t seen you all day.” And if Scott (as well as Derek and Stiles) had their way she likely wouldn’t have seen him for the rest of the day either.

   “Uh, yeah. I’ve been super busy,” was Scott’s really bad excuse.

   “When are you gonna get your phone fixed? I feel like I’m totally disconnected from you,” she told him.

   “Uh, soon. Real soon.” Scott really needed better answers if he was going to try and keep this up for more than today.

   “I changed lab partners, by the way.”

   “Oh, to who?” Scott, Stiles decided, was an idiot.

   “To you, dummy.”

   “Me? I mean, are you sure?”

   “Yeah. This way I have an excuse to bring you home and study.” Then Scott made a silent ‘oh’ and her demeanor changed and her scent filled with worry. Again, idiot. “You don’t mind, do you?”

   “I just… I don’t want to bring your grade down.” The smell of worry lessened and surprise started to replace it.

   “Well, I mean, maybe I can bring your grade up,” she responded, making Stiles roll his eyes. “Come to my place tonight. 8:30?”

   “Tonight?” Allison nodded before repeating the time she set.

   Coach slammed a book down on his desk, preventing Allison and Scott’s conversation from going any further. “Let’s settle down. Let’s start with a quick summary of last night’s reading.” Several students raised their hands but he didn’t call on them. “Greenburg put your hand down. Everybody knows you did the reading. How about… McCall.”

   “What?” Scott said, clearly not having paid attention.

   “The reading.”

   “Last night’s reading?”

   “No, no. How about the reading of The Gettysburg Address?” Coach said sarcastically causing most of the class to laugh.

   “What?” Scott said again, even more confused.

   “That’s sarcasm. You familiar with the term ‘sarcasm,’ McCall?”

   “Very,” he replied, looking over to Stiles who had an ‘aw, stop it’ look on his face.

   “Did you do the reading or not?” Coach asked.

   “Um… I think I forgot,” Scott told him.

   “Nice work, McCall. It’s not like you’re not averaging a ‘D’ in this class.” This caused the class to laugh again. “Come on, buddy. You know I can’t keep you on the team if you have a ‘D.’” That’s when Scott’s heartbeat started to rise. Noticing Stiles discretely pulled out Coaches phone to more easily monitor how fast it was. “How about you summarize the previous night’s reading? No?” Scott's heart rate was now over 100bpm. “How about the night before that? How about you summarize anything you’ve ever read in your entire life?” Scott’s heart rate was at 135bpm and climbing. Stiles was worried about what would happen if it got to 165. “No? A blog? How about the back of a cereal box? No? How about the adults-only warning from your favorite website you visit every night? Anything? Thank you, McCall, thank you. Thank. You. McCall. Thank you for extinguishing any last flicker of hope I have for your generation. Thanks. You just blew it for everybody. Thanks. Next practice you can start with suicide runs. Unless that’s too much reading.” Just as Scott’s heart rate was about to hit the 165 mark it started to go down. “All right. Everybody else, settle down.” Stiles looked over at Scott to see what calmed him down and noticed Allison holding the werewolf’s hand.

   Stiles decided to share his new theory with Scott when class was over.

BREAK

   “It’s her,” Stiles told Scott as they made their way to the first floor of the building. Finstock was the second to last class of the day so Stiles didn’t have much time left to help Scott.

   “What do you mean?” Scott asked after he made sure no one could hear them.

   “It’s Allison.” Scott was still confused so Stiles elaborated. “Remember what you told me about the night of the full moon? You were thinking about her, right? About protecting her.” Scott nodded in confirmation. “Remember the night of the first lacrosse game? You said that you could hear her voice out on the field.”

   “Yeah, I did,” Scott responded but he was still confused.

   “Well, so that’s what brought you back so you could score. And then after the game in the locker room, you didn’t kill her. At least not like how you were trying to kill me.” Yeah, Stiles had to snap Scott out of his wolfy state by spraying him with a fire extinguisher. Allison just had to kiss him and that wasn't something Stiles was willing to do. “She brings you back is what I’m saying.”

   “No, no, no, but it’s not always true, because literally every time I’m kissing her or touching her…” Stiles cut him off before he could continue.

   “No, that’s not the same. When you’re doing that you’re just another hormonal teenager thinking about sex, you know?” Scott then got a goofy grin on his face. “You’re thinking about sex right now, aren’t you?”

   “Yeah. Sorry,” Scott chuckled.

   “That’s fine. Look, back in the classroom when she was holding your hand, that was different, okay? I don’t think she makes you weak. I think she actually gives you control.” It kind of reminded Stiles of how he got all growly whenever Derek was threatened. His fox was never too happy about it either. “She’s kind of like an anchor.”

   “You mean because I love her,” Scott said without really thinking.

   “Exactly.” Scott and Allison had only really been going out for a month, so Stiles didn’t really get it but this was also Scott’s first relationship so he didn’t feel the need to comment.

   “Did I just say that?”

   “Yes, you just said that.”

   “I love her.” Stiles just hoped that love wouldn’t get them all killed.

   “That’s great. Now moving on…”

   “No, no, no, really,” Scott interrupted. “I think I’m totally in love with her.”

   “And that’s beautiful. Now, before you go off and write a sonnet, can we figure this out, please? Because you obviously can’t be around her all the time.” And because of that, someone might end up dead, Stiles thought but didn’t say.

   “Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. So what do I do?”

   “I don’t know. Yet.” Then Stiles started to get a look in his eyes.

   “Oh, no. You’re getting an idea, aren’t you?” The last one resulted in a lot of bodily harm so he wasn’t looking forward to this one.

   “Yeah,” Stiles confirmed, the idea now fully formed in his head.

   “In this idea gonna get me in trouble?”

   “Maybe.”

   “Is this idea going to cause me physical pain?”

   “Yeah, definitely. Come on.” Stiles just started to walk away giving Scott no choice but to follow.

   They made their way out of the school and towards the parking lot in the back. One of the vehicles was a black, expensive-looking truck.

   “What are we doing?” Scott asked when they started making their way towards the truck and the seniors that happened to be not too far from it.

   “You’ll see. Hold on.” They stopped a couple of feet away from the truck. Stiles stood in front of Scott and corrected his stance and moved him slightly closer to the truck. “Stand right there. Do you have your keys?” Scott pulled his keys out of his jacket pocket. “Perfect. Hold ‘em up like so.” Stiles moved Scott’s arm into a right angle, the key’s in his hand with one pointing up. “Now, whatever happens just think about Allison. Try to find her voice as you did at the game. Got it?” Scott shook his head yes. “Okay just keep holding it right there.”

   Stiles pulled out his own keys and made his way over to the truck. After making sure none of the seniors were watching he dragged a key across the side of it, making a line in the paint job. Scott was too shocked about the fact that Stiles just keyed someone’s car to do anything other than gape at the truck. He didn’t snap out of it until Stiles yelled, “Hey, hey, hey, dude! What do you think you’re doing to that truck, bro!”

   “What the hell?” One of the seniors, a white guy in a white button-up shirt and a gray flat cap, yelled? That’s when Scott realized he was still holding his keys making it look like he was the one that keyed his truck.

   Flat cap threw an uppercut into Scott's jaw causing him to fall to the ground. In retaliation Scott dove at the guy's waist and failed causing Flat Cap to throw him off and sent Scott sprawling back on the ground. One of the other seniors, a black guy with two jackets on, helped flat cap drag Scott onto the concrete next to the truck where they, as well as two other seniors, started to beat on Scott who had wisely curled into a ball to limit the damage that will be done to his body. Stiles watched the whole thing and kept track of Scott’s heart rate with Coach’s phone, occasionally flinching at certain blows delivered to Scott.

   Eventually a teacher -Mr. Harris, sadly- came and broke up the fight. The seniors ran leaving a bruised and slightly bloody (it’s just his nose) in a ball on the ground.

   “What do you idiots think you’re doing?” Harris asked Stiles and Scott, the only two remaining students. Scott just picked himself up off the ground and Stiles was holding up Coach’s phone with a proud simile on his face.

BREAK

   Derek walked into the room, his uncle’s wheelchair facing the windows. He had been recently moved to the long-term care ward at Beacon Hills hospital to make room for another, more responsive patient. Derek silently made his way over to the bed and sat down, moving Peter’s chair so it was facing him.

   “Hey, uncle Peter. Sorry I haven’t visited in a while. Cora’s sorry too, especially since she couldn’t make it today either.” Cora said she would have joined him if not for school. He was kind of glad for it. This visit was more about what had been going on in Beacon Hills and both she and Derek wanted her to stay out of it.

   “I need your help. If you can hear me, I need you to give me a sign.” This was Derek’s only hope and he doesn’t know what else to do if it doesn’t work. “Blink. Raise a finger. Anything. Just… Just something to point me in the right direction, okay? Someone killed Laura. Your niece. Laura?” Derek became more insistent the longer Peter remained unresponsive. “Whoever he is, he’s an alpha now. But he’s one without a pack.” Despite the fact that the alpha bit Scott and Stiles they had been rejecting the bond. Stiles is a lot better than Scott. “Which means he’s not as strong. I can take him. But I have to find him first. Look, if you know something, just give me a sign. Is it one of us?” There was nothing, no response in any way. “Someone else make it out of the fire? Just give me anything. Blink, raise a finger, just anything. Say something!” Derek jumped off the bed and slammed his hands down on the arms of Peter’s wheelchair. Still nothing.

   “Let him go,” a voice came from behind him. It was the nurse from the facility, apparently, she had followed Peter to BHH’s long-term care ward. “You think after five years of this, yelling at him is going to get a response?”

   “You got a better method?” Derek asked in an irritated tone.

   “Patience,” She told him in a much more calm, sympathetic voice. “He’ll respond if you give him the time.”

   “I don’t have any more time,” he told her before leaving the room and making his way back to the camaro. He left before he could see Peter moving a finger.

   When Derek got to the camaro there was a piece of paper under the windshield wiper on the driver’s side. He unfolded it and after he saw what was on it he looked around the parking lot in case whoever left it was still there. Beside himself the parking lot was empty. Derek folded the paper back up and put it in his pocket before getting in the camaro and heading to where he would now find answers.

BREAK

   Scott and Stiles were sitting next to each other in detention. They were supposed to be doing their homework but neither of them actually was. Harris, the presiding teacher, was the only one actually doing anything, but that was kind of his job.

   “Excuse me, sir? I know it’s detention and all, but I'm supposed to be at work and I don’t want to get fired.” Harris just smiled at Scott and went back to work. Asshole. “You knew I would heal,” Scott said, addressing Stiles now.

   “Yep,” was Stiles’ short reply.

   “So you did that to help me learn?” Stiles just repeated what he said last time. “But partially to punish me.”

   “Yeah. Well, that one’s obvious.” Scott still hadn’t actually said that he was sorry either. He may have implied it but it’s still nice to hear the words too.

   “Dude, you’re my best friend and I can’t have you being angry with me.” Stiles stayed silent for a little while.

   “I’m not angry anymore.” And he really wasn’t more resigned and subdued than anything. Watching Scott get hurt was still fun though. “Look we have something, Scott. Okay? Whether you want it or not, you and I can do things that nobody else can do. So that means you don’t have a choice anymore. It means you have to do something. That I have to do something.” He said the last part more quietly than the others.

   “I know. And I will,” Scott assured him.

   “Alright, both of you, out of here.” Both boys quickly packed up at Harris’ words and left the building. Scott heading to work and Stiles heading home. He had research to do.

BREAK

   Stiles made his way into the parking lot, parking in front of the School. Earlier when he got a text from Scott saying he was coming over he was a little surprised. Even more so for the reason, Scott came over.

   When Scott told him what Derek did he was shocked, to say the least. Apparently, Derek came to the clinic looking for information on a deer with a spiral carved into its side. When Deaton didn’t give any over (or as Derek said when Stiles called him yelling so many insults he could barely keep up with them himself) he knocked the man out and tied him to a chair. When the guy finally came to he threatened him and lifted the goddamn chair, with Deaton still on it. When Scott came into intervene Derek knocked him out again, Scott showed off some of his new control (‘Thank you, Stiles. What would I ever do without you, Stiles?’ *response to the conversation that Scott should have started in Stiles' opinion* ‘Oh, it was no problem at all. It’s what best friends are for.’) effectively stopping Derek from doing any more damage, and then Derek revealed that he thinks that Deaton is the alpha.

   Needless to say, the talk he planned on having with Derek is going to be a lot longer than it was before. And he’s definitely bringing in Cora as backup. Maybe she could talk some sense into the idiot.

   Scott and Stiles hopped out of the Jeep and made their way to the back. “This is a terrible idea,” Stiles told Scott.

   “Yeah, I know.” It was reasons like these Stiles did all the planning and Scott just carried them out.

   “But we're still gonna do it?” He already knew the answer but it didn’t hurt to try.

   “Can you think of something better?” No, because he wasn’t given any time to.

   “Well, personally I’m a fan of ignoring a problem until eventually it just goes away.” It was better than almost dying from trying to figure the problem out.

   “Just make sure we can get inside.” Stiles sighed before opening the trunk of the jeep and pulling out bolt cutters. “He’s here,” Scott said when a car pulled up. They walked over to the camaro as Derek got out.

   “Where’s my boss,” Scott asked the older teenager.

   “He’s in the back.” Both Scott and Stiles looked at the back seats and saw Deaton tied up with his face squished up against the window.

   “Oh, he looks comfortable,” Stiles commented. Scott nudged his side to get the werefox to follow him. Stiles walked backward from the car mouthing 'you and I are going to talk’ before turning to follow his friend.

   “Wait. Hey. What are you doing.” Apparently, Derek hadn’t gotten the memo about Scott’s plan.

   “You said we were connected to the alpha,” Scott told him while still walking away. “I’m gonna see if you’re right.” They made their way to the front doors and cut the chains keeping them closed. After they were in the school they made their way to the front office where the intercoms were controlled.

   “Okay, one question,” Stiles said as they got to the front office. “What are you gonna do if the alpha doesn’t show up?” That part hadn’t actually been discussed.

   “I don’t know.”

   “And what are you gonna do if he does show up?” That hadn’t been discussed either.

   “I don’t know,” Scott repeated.

   “Good plan,” Stiles told him as he began to set up the intercoms.

   “You said that a wolf howls to signal its position to the rest of the pack, right?”

   “Right, but if you bring him here, does that make you part of his pack?” If so, and Stiles is here too, does that include him as well?

   “I hope not.”

   “Yeah, me too.” Stiles finished what needed to be done and handed the mic thing to Scott.

   “All right,” Stiles said and turned a dial to make sure the sound would be as loud as possible. “All you.” Scott cleared his throat and pressed the button on the mic and let out what was supposed to be a howl -or whatever the sound Scott made was- into it.

   “Was it okay?” Scott asked when he saw Stiles cringing after the sound was made. “I mean, that was a howl, right?”

   “Technically.”

   “Well, what did it sound like to you?”

   “Like a cat being choked to death, Scott.” And that was putting it lightly.

   “Well, why don’t you do it then?” Scott asked feeling a little self-conscious.

   “I would but foxes aren’t exactly known for their howl.” And while foxes could howl it sounded closer to what Scott did the first time just a little less pitchy.

   “Then how am I supposed to do this?” Because apparently, Stiles had all the answers.

   Stiles walked around the desk that had the intercom equipment on it and behind Scott. “Listen to me. You’re calling the alpha. All right? Be a man. Be a werewolf, not a teen wolf. Be a werewolf.”

   “Okay,” Scott breathed apparently all pepped up now. Stiles backed away and moved back behind the desk and Scott let out an honest to gods roar. The roar went through the school causing walls lockers and more to shake.

   When they got back outside to the parking lot Derek was visibly pissed.

   “I’m gonna kill both of you.” Well the feelings mutual, Stiles thought. “The hell was that. What are you trying to do, attract the entire state to the school?”

   “Sorry. I didn’t know it would be that loud,” Scott told Derek.

   “Yeah, it was loud. And it was awesome,” Stiles commented, drawing out the last word.

   “Shut up,” Derek snarled.

   “Don’t be such a sour wolf.” And that nickname was definitely going to make a comeback. Also, Derek couldn’t talk after what he pulled with Deaton.

   “What’d you do with him?” Scott asked when he noticed that his boss was missing and the passenger side door of the camaro was open.

   At that, Derek looked at the car with confusion. “I didn’t do anything.”

   Without warning, blood started coming out of Derek’s mouth as he was lifted off the ground and thrown away like a rag doll. In the werewolf’s place stood the alpha.

Chapter Text

“Derek!” Stiles roared, whether in grief or anger he didn’t know. As Derek was thrown away Stiles tried to rush forward, to attack the alpha or to go after Derek he didn’t know either, but Scott held him back and dragged him into the school once again. Stiles immediately tried to rush the door and go back outside, go back for Derek, but Scott pushed him away and to the ground. Stiles growled at his friend for stopping him, his fangs lengthening and his eyes glowing. Werewolves may be naturally stronger than werefoxes from what he knew but he would put up one hell of a fight.

   “We can’t go back out there. We’ll be killed.” Stiles just growled slightly louder and got off the ground.

   “I don’t give a shit. Derek is out there, and I’m not leaving him alone. Get the fuck out of my way.”

   “Derek is dead.” Stiles once again upped the octave of his growl while the fox inside him howled in grief at the statement.

   “He’s not dead.”

   “Yes, he is, Stiles. I don’t know what your obsession with Derek is, and frankly, I’m glad it can be over now. But Derek is dead, we just saw it happen.” Stiles’ shift receded with every word Scott said until nothing but tears were rolling down his face. “Now come hold the door while I find something to lock it with.” Stiles glared but complied with the order.

   “I can’t find anything,” Scott huffed after a few seconds of looking. They both turned and looked outside the windows on the doors and noticed the bolt cutters Stiles had used previously lying on the ground by the steps.

   “No,” Scott was quick to say, knowing what his friend was going to suggest.

   “Yes,” Stiles barked back.

   “No, because as soon as you get out there you’ll go straight for wherever Derek’s body landed and the alpha will take the opportunity to kill you too.”

   “Got any better ideas,” Stiles shot back while letting out a short growl.

   “I’ll get the bolt cutters. You stay here.” Stiles glared and just barely held back a snarl but nodded anyway. There was no way he could avenge Derek if he was dead.

   Opening the door ever so slightly Scott squeezed through and rushed down the steps. As he bent down to get the bolt cutters the alpha moved from its hiding place behind the jeep and started to run in the direction of the beta ‘wolf. Stiles yelled out Scott’s name to warn him. When the teen saw the alpha his eyes widened in fear before he grabbed the bolt cutters and rushed back into the school. He and Stiles quickly slammed the doors closed before using the bolt cutters to barricade them shut.

   “It’s not going to hold long is it?” Scott asked.

   “No,” Stiles answered simply.

   A second later they heard a howl come from behind them, inside the building. Both teens quickly reacted and ran inside the nearest unlocked classroom, barricading the door with a teacher’s desk.

   “That’s not going to hold long either,” Stiles whispered.

   “I know,” Scott quietly whined.

   “You know this means that Deaton’s the alpha right?”

   “What, no.”

   “Yes, he’s a murdering psycho werewolf.” Scott refused to let Stiles try and save Derek, Stiles refuses to let Scott view past the fact that Deaton is most likely the alpha.

   “That can’t be.”

   “He disappears, and the alpha shows up ten seconds later to toss Derek 20 feet in the air? That’s not convenient timing?”

   “It’s not him.”

   “He killed Derek.” Scott flinched slightly at how dark Stiles’ tone turned. “And when we get out of here, I’ll kill him.”

   “You’re not killing anybody.” Stiles didn’t respond just glared at the other beta. No one was going to stop Stiles, and when Cora found out she would help him. “Just… What do we do?”

   “We get to my jeep. We get out of here. And you seriously think about quitting your job.” Scott just whined before going to open one of the windows and hoping for a way to escape.

   “They don’t open, the school’s climate controlled.”

   “Then we break it.” Stiles gave him an ‘are you stupid look’ before informing him about how loud that action would be. “Then we run really fast… Really fast,” Scott repeated as he noticed their distance from the jeep. As he looked back to the jeep though he noticed something else too.

   “Stiles, what’s wrong with the hood of your jeep?” Scott prompted, making Stiles start to panic for a whole other reason.

   “What do you mean? Nothing better be wrong with my jeep,” Stiles muttered as he tried to move in front o the other teen. If anything happened to his mother’s jeep Alan Deaton was more than dead in his eyes.

   “It’s bent.”

   “What, you mean liked dented?”

   “No, I mean bent.”

   “What the hell,” Stiles whispered upon closer inspection, just as something bursts through the window next to them causing both boys to seek cover against the wall the windows sat upon.

   “That’s my battery,” Stiles said as he sat in shock before peering over the window sill to look back at his jeep but Scott pulled him down before he could.

   “Don’t move,” Scott whisper shouted.

   “We have to move,” Stiles responded.

   “He could be right outside.”

   “He is right outside,” Stiles pointed out as gestured to his precious baby’s car battery. Stiles once again moved to look out the windows but this time Scott didn’t stop him. When he saw nothing he told Scott they needed to move, so they quickly move the desk away from the classroom door and headed back out to the hallway.

   “This way,” Scott said before turning to go right down the hall before Stiles stopped him. “What?”

   “We need to go somewhere without windows,” Stiles told him.

   “Every single room in this building has windows.”

   “Then we go somewhere with less windows.” When Scott suggests the locker room Stiles is quick to agree. It also had numerous exits in case they had to flee again.

   “Call your dad,” Scott suggested after a quick look around the locker room.

   “And tell him what?”

   “I don’t know, anything. A gas leak, a fire, whatever. If that thing sees the parking lot filled with cop cars, it’ll take off.”

   “What if it doesn’t?” Stiles said with a small rumbling tinging his voice. “What if it goes completely Terminator and kills every cop in sight, including my dad?”

   “They have guns.”

   “Yeah, and Derek had to be shot with a wolfsbane bullet to even slow him down.” Stiles hadn’t realized it but while he had been talking he had advanced somewhat on his friend -he didn’t really think Scott qualified as his best friend much as of late- and backed off with a frustrated growl.

   “Then we… We have… We have to find a way out and just run for it.”

   “There’s nothing around for over a mile.” Even with their new speed, they wouldn’t be able to outrun the alpha, whether they made that mile or not.

   “What about Derek’s car?” As much as he didn’t want to touch something that clearly meant a lot to Derek, not wanting to damage the vehicle, it would work and he said as much to Scott, but that would require the keys which Derek had on him when the alpha had gotten to him, something he also voiced to Scott.

   “Then we go outside, we get the keys off his body, and then we take his car.” Stiles barely stopped himself from attacking Scott when he spoke as he knew it was the only way to get out of there, no matter how much he hated it.

   “If we do that, we take Derek’s body with us,” Stiles said, leaving no room for argument. “Cora deserves to know, and she deserves to say goodbye.” Scott agreed, even if he did so rather insensitively.

   Scott and Stiles once again started to move around the locker room to do a more thorough check. They were by one of the doors when they hear someone moving around on the other side. They slowly start to back away from the door and hide in their own lockers from the lacrosse team, Stiles being louder than he should; not on purpose he just doesn’t care enough to be quiet at the moment. They both hold their breath as someone enters the room, the door making a screeching sound as it opens, and do their best to not move as they hear footsteps moving closer to them, the sound echoing off the locker room walls. Scott barely contains his gasp as he sees someone walk by through the vent in the door, but when the person that had walked by pops back up and looks inside he lets it go. The man, and they are a man, opens the locker door he startles at the person inside, and then once again when Stiles pops out of the locker behind him. At his shouts, Scott and Stiles quickly tell the man to quiet down.

   “Quiet my ass, what the hell are you trying to do, kill me?” the janitor is quick to snap at them. “Both of you get out.”

   “Just listen for half a second, okay?” Stiles tries.

   “Not okay. Get the hell out of here.”

   The man starts pushing the two towards the door and shoves them out of the locker room. They try to stop and explain themselves and get the man out of danger as well, but he ignores their pleas and tells them once more to leave. Before he closes the door the man gets pulled back into the locker room with a scream and the door slams shut before the janitor gets shoved into the door, blood smearing the foggy window. At that moment Scott tries to get in the room but, like the teen had done with him early when he tried to rescue Derek, Stiles is quick to stop him and pull him away. He manages to get Scott to run just before the door breaks down and the janitor, who came down with the door, once again gets dragged back into the locker room by the alpha.

BREAK

While Scott and Stiles scramble to escape the school Allison is waiting at her house for the former teen. Jackson and Lydia come to check on Allison when they find out that she had been waiting for Scott for almost half an hour. Just as they’re about to leave to go see if Scott’s at his house Allison gets a text from him.

BREAK

Stiles and Scott manage to make it to one of the exit doors closer to the back of the school but when they try and open it they can’t get out, not even with their enhanced strength. Scott manages to get the door open enough for Stiles to see what the obstruction is, a rather large dumpster.

   “He pushed it in front of the door,” Stiles mutters in disbelief.

   “To block us in,” Scott finishes as Stiles tries uselessly to get the door open. After a couple of seconds, Scott has to drag Stiles away from the barricaded door.

   “I’m not dying here. I’m not dying at school.” Stiles would prefer not to die at all but if he does have to die, school is definitely not the place he wants it to happen, he’s already miserable here enough during the day.

   “We’re not going to die,” Scott tries to assure him but Stiles pretty much ignores the comment. “What is it doing? What does it want?” Scott goes for instead.

   “Us, maybe just you since you’re a werewolf. Derek said it’s stronger with a pack. Cause nothing’s better than a psychotic werewolf that’s into teamwork.”

   Scott stopped walking to look out a window, Stiles paused too and was quick to look out the window as well at Scott’s wide-eyed look. Across the courtyard, they could see the alpha on the roof of the school hidden somewhat behind a pillar. Soon the alpha started to run at them prompting them to run back the way they came, narrowly missing the alpha when he crashed through the window and started to give chase. The two ducked into a doorway not too far from the exit and quickly ran down the stairs presented to them and into a lower level of the school.

   They made their way down a series of hallways, taking turns at random in hopes to buy more time. Eventually, they stopped and hid by some old lockers to catch their breaths and hopefully come up with a better plan. Close by they could hear the low growling of the alpha down just a hallway from them. When the alpha turned away from them they went further into the maze that seemed to be a part of the school going through some remodeling or something.

   “All right, we have to do something,” Stiles whispered, as running around like a bunch of headless chickens hoping not to get caught wasn’t panning out too well for them.

   “Like what?”

   “I don’t know. Find a way to kill it, hurt it, inflict mental anguish on it… Just something to slow it down.” Not too far away they hear glass shatter closely followed by the low growl of the alpha echoing in the old room.

   Stiles looked into an open doorway that they were standing near and noticed that it was almost completely barren. An idea came to him and as quietly as he could he slowly extracted his keys from his pocket he jangled the keys slightly to get the attention of the alpha before throwing them into the empty room and quickly backing away from the door as the alpha came careening down the hallway. As soon as the alpha was in the empty room Stiles slammed the door shut and directed Scott to get a large desk that was against the wall nearby, they put the desk between the door and the wall barricading the alpha into the room. The alpha slammed into the door to try and escape but the desk just hit the wall still keeping the door shut. The two huffed in relief at the alpha being trapped before Stiles told Scott to crawl over the desk to where he was so they could leave, Scott quickly hopped across the desk in fear of the alpha trying something even while trapped. Stiles though was tempted by curiosity and anger.

   “What are you doing?” Scott panicked as Stiles moved closer to the wired window that would let them see into the room.

   “I just want to look at it.” Stiles tried to make sure that his voice didn’t show his true intentions.

   “Are you crazy?”

   “It’s trapped. It’s not going to get out.” This time as Stiles crawled over the desk the beta didn’t protest, but he didn’t look happy.

   “That’s right, we got you, you son of-”

   “Shut up,” Scott whisper shouted. Stiles just flashed his eyes at him menacingly, this was his opportunity to do something, even something as small and petty as this, in response to what the alpha did to Derek.

   “I’m not scared of this thing,” Stiles growled in response when the alpha suddenly jumped at the door and tried to claw at the wired window causing Stiles to lunge off the desk. “Still not scared,” he muttered, but as he continued to talk his voice grew in volume. “Cause you’re in there and we’re out here. And you’re not going any-”

   Before Stiles could finish speaking the alpha jumped up and ripped through the panel ceiling of his temporary cell, making Stiles regret the taunting he had been doing. Above them, the ceiling distorted with the weight and movement of the alpha, their only reprieve being that the beast was moving away from them. Either way, the two were quick to flee the room before the ceiling gave out under the alpha.

   This time as they ran through the building they made their way back towards the front of the school. Once again Scott stopped them but instead because of the sound of someone’s phone ringing, Allison's phone according to Scott. Scott forced Stiles to give him his phone and used it to dial Allison’s number. The entire time they talked Stiles silently wished that Allison got mauled or at least slightly maimed by the alpha while they were trapped there. The call ended as Scott urged Allison from wherever she currently was to go to the lobby and right after the call ended they headed that way as well.

   “Why did you come? What are you doing here?” Scott asked his girlfriend as they walked into the lobby of the school, coincidentally arriving at the same time.

   “Because you asked me to,” Allison told him with a confused furrow of her brow.

   “I asked you to?” Scott said, now equally confused. Allison pulled up a message on her phone that read ‘Meet me at the school. URGENT -Scott’.

   “Why do I get the feeling you didn’t send this message?” she asks when she sees the look on her boyfriend’s face.

   “Because I didn’t,” Scott tells her.

   “Did you drive here?” Stiles interrupts, they could deal with shocking revelations later.

   “Jackson did,” Allison tells them.

   “Jackson’s here too?” Scott asks, disdain clear in his voice.

   “And Lydia, what’s going on? Who sent this text?” Before her questions can be answered Allison’s phone rings and as soon as she answers Lydia and Jackson burst into the lobby.

   “Finally,” Lydia sighs. “Can we go now?” As they start to nod their agreement thumps in the ceiling above them can be heard.

   Before the alpha can come crashing through the ceiling Stiles and Scott share a look before urging everyone to run. They make it up the stairs just in time to hear the alpha crash to the floor, but the creature is quick to recover and give chase behind them. As quick as they could they made it down the hall and into a room with two doors. Scott quickly locked the doors and everyone grabs stuff to put in front of them, except Stiles who as soon as he took in their surroundings realized they made a mistake in where they chose to hide.

   “Scott, wait, not here,” he was quick to say, but they weren’t listening.

   “What was that? Scott, what was that?” Allison asked, panic and fear lacing her voice.

   “What came out of the ceiling?” Lydia asked her tone much the same as Allison’s. Instead of answering Scott just urged them to help him and Jackson barricade the doors.

   “Guys…” Stiles tried again. “Can we just wait a second?” They were still ignoring him. “You guys, listen to me…” Still nothing. “Can we wait a second?” he repeated louder. “Guys? Stiles talking. Can we hang on one second please?” As they continued to block off the door Stiles really wished he had been stuck with some smarter people.

   “Hello!” he shouted, finally garnering the attention of the four other teens in the room. “Okay, nice work. Really beautiful job, everyone. Now, what should we do about the twenty-foot wall of windows?” Stiles gestured wildly and full of just as much sarcasm as his tone was to said wall of windows that he was standing in front of. Stiles would like to lie and say he didn’t take a little satisfaction in the way their faces fell at the sight of the windows, but he did.

   “Can somebody please explain to me what’s going on? Because I am freaking out here,” Allison said instead, apparently not focusing on how out in the open they were. “And I would like to know why. Scott?” The boy in question had to move away from her to try and think.

   “Somebody killed the janitor,” Stiles spoke up.

   “What?” was the response given by Lydia.

   “Yeah, the janitor’s dead.”

   “What’s he talking about? Is this a joke?” Allison asked, voice somewhat hysterical as she looked to Scott again for answers.

   “What, who killed him?” Jackson spoke, also directing his attention towards Scott.

   “No, no, no, no. This was supposed to be over,” Lydia said, her voice more crazed than Allison’s. “The mountain lion killed-”

   “No, don’t you get it?” Jackson interrupted. “There wasn’t a mountain lion.”

   “Who was it?” Allison chimed, almost on the verge of tears. “What does he want? What’s happening?” When she doesn’t get an answer she urges Scott to give her one.

   “I don’t know,” he stammers. “I just… If we go out there he’s gonna kill us.”

   “Us?” Lydia emphasizes. “He gonna kill us?”

   “Who?” Allison asks again. “Who is it?” This time she’s asking Stiles, but he doesn’t answer either.

   “It’s Derek.” Stiles' entire body stops for a second. “It’s Derek Hale.” Stiles was going to murder his best friend.

   “No, it’s not,” Stiles whispers, though no one hears him.

   “Derek killed the janitor?” Jackson asks, seeming confused about the answer that Scott gave them.

   “No, he didn’t.” Still, no one hears, even as his voice starts rising.

   “Are you sure?” Allison asks him.

   “I saw him,” Scott tells her, and that’s what breaks Stiles’ resolve.

   “No, the fuck you didn’t!” People in the room jump at the unexpected shout and turn. “It wasn’t him and you know it, Scott.”

   “If it wasn’t Derek then who was it?” Jackson asked, something accusatory in his voice.

   “I don’t know but it wasn’t Derek.” Stiles was barely maintaining control, and Scott looking at him pleadingly wasn’t help.

   “But what about the mountain lion-” Lydia started.

   “No, Derek killed them.”

   “All of them,” Allison asked, clearly more inclined to believe Scott.

   “Yeah, starting with his own sister.” Stiles nearly launched himself at Scott but Jackson saw and stopped him before he could.

   “Calm down, lover boy,” Jackson whispered. Stiles ripped himself out of the other teen’s grasp sending him a glare and then directing the glare at Scott along with a subvocal growl that he knew only he would hear and no one else.

   “And the bus driver?” Allison added once more.

   “And the guy at the video store. It’s been Derek the whole time. He’s in here with us.”

   Stiles knew that Allison and Lydia believed Scott rather than him, and maybe Jackson too though he was the only one seeming to question what Scott was saying. He ended up punching a wall in frustration due to both what Scott was saying and the fact that everyone had continuously ignored what he was saying, the sound of it made Lydia and Jackson, who had heard him, jump again.

   “And if we don’t get out now. He’s going to kill us, too.”

   “Call the cops,” Jackson demanded after a few seconds of fearful -and angry on Stiles’ part- silence.

   “No,” Stiles was quick to respond.

   “What do you mean, “no”?”

   “I mean no. Do you want to hear it in Spanish? No.” This time he said the word with a slight accent.

   “Look, whoever’s out there killed three people, okay? We don’t know what they’re armed with.” Stiles was still refusing to go along with Scott in saying that this was Derek.

   “Your dad is armed with an entire sheriff’s department,” Jackson seethed. “Call him.”

   “I’m calling,” Lydia decided.

   “No, Lydia, would you just hold on a sec…” When Stiles tried to follow and convince her not to Jackson and Allison pushed him away. At least this time Scott came to his aid and got them off of him.

   “Yes, we’re at Beacon Hills High School. We’re trapped and we need you to…” Apparently, the dispatch cut her off. “But… She hung up on me.”

   “The police hung up on you?” Allison asked.

   “She said that they got a tip warning them that there are gonna be prank calls about a break-in at the high school. She said that if I call again that they’re gonna trace it and have me arrested.”

   “Okay, then call again.”

   “No, they won’t trace a cell,” Stiles told them. “And they’ll send a car to your house before they send anyone here.”

   “What… What the… What is this?” Allison panicked. “Why does Derek want to kill us? Why is he killing anyone?” Stiles looked to Scott since he came up with the lie and he was still refusing to support it. Apparently, everyone followed him in the motion.

   “Why’s everyone looking at me?” Scott questioned.

   “Is he the one that sent her the text?” Lydia asked.

   “No. I mean, I don’t know,” Scott stutters out, looking to Stiles for help who is decidedly not offering any.

   “Is he the one who called the police?” Allison asks.

   “I don’t know!” he yells, immediately regretting it at the look of hurt now on his girlfriend's face.

    “All right, why don’t we ease back on the throttle here, yeah?” Stiles suggests before pulling Scott to the side.

   “First off, throwing Derek under the bus, nicely done,” Stiles says with as much snark as he can.

    “I didn’t know what to say. I had to say something. Plus it’s not like you had any ideas either, other than 'it’s not Derek'.”

   “Yeah and if it wasn’t for that I would still be protesting against what you said.”

   “But he’s dead so it doesn’t really matter, right?”

   “Except if he’s not,” Stiles says with a growl.

   “God I just totally bit her head off,” Scott all but whines.

   “And she’ll totally get over it.” Life or death situation and Scott still couldn’t get his head out of Allison’s ass. “Bigger issues at hand here, like how do we get out alive?”

   “But we are alive,” Scott pointed out. “It could’ve killed us already. It’s like it’s cornering us or something.”

   “So what, it wants to eat us all at the same time?”

   “No! Derek said it wants revenge.”

   “But against who?”

   “Allison’s family?” It made sense if they were really as notorious and feared as Derek had made them seem.

   “Maybe that’s what the text was about,” Stiles realized. “Someone had to send it.”

   “Okay, assheads,” Jackson interrupted. “New plan. Stiles calls his useless dad and tells him to send someone with a gun and decent aim. Are we good with that?”

   “He’s right,” Scott told Stiles when he started to refuse. “Tell him the truth if you have to, just call him.”

   “I’m not watching my dad get eaten alive,” Stiles told him. He had already lost one person tonight; he didn't need to lose another. Stiles looked to the people behind them and simply shook his head before walking away from Scott and further away from everyone else.

   “All right, give me the phone,” Jackson demanded as he went after Stiles. As soon as the teen's hand landed on his shoulder Stiles turned around and punched him in the jaw, just barely managing to keep himself in check and not break it. Jackson wasn’t really the one he wanted to punch at the moment but the douchebag still deserved it.

   Allison was surprisingly the one to rush to Jackson’s aid, much to the clear displeasure of Lydia and Scott. As he glared at the teen cupping his jaw in pain Stiles reluctantly pulled out his phone because calling his dad was sadly still the only option they had at the moment.

   “Dad, hey, it’s me,” Stiles started after quickly going through his speed dial. “And it’s your voicemail. Look, I need you to call me back now. Like, right now.” Just then something hit the cafeteria door, rattling the chairs and cooler that was barricading them. “We’re at the school, okay? We’re at the school.” The banging got louder and louder as he hung up the phone and Stiles could see the hinges starting to bend away from the door as the stuff in front of it was pushed away.

   As the barricade started to become a further failure Stiles urged everyone to go through the kitchen to the door that led to the stairwell. Scott tried to stop them as the stairs only led up but Stiles was quick to remind him that it was better than being trapped there. The group didn’t move for a second but as the door came almost completely loose they were quick to move, making it through the door just in time for the Alpha to burst into the cafeteria.

   As they ran through the upstairs hallway, everyone tried doors to see if any were unlocked and could provide a safe haven. Lydia was the first to be successful and everyone was quick to rush into the classroom, a science classroom with too many breakable objects. Scott, who was the last one in the room, grabbed a chair and quickly put it under the doorknob in hopes it would keep it from being open. Scott leaned towards the door to try and hear it better but Stiles was quick to pull him back before he could be seen through the small window on the door. Everyone worked to calm their breathing and be as quiet and still as possible as the growling from the alpha got closer. They all breathed a sigh of relief when the shadow of the predator passed by their hiding spot.

   “Jackson, how many people can fit into your car?” Scott whispered, all of them still being weary in case the Alpha wasn’t as gone as he seemed.

   "Five if someone squeezes in on somebody's lap."

   “Five?” Allison asked incredulously. “I barely fit in the back.”

   “It doesn’t matter,” Stiles told them. “There’s no getting out without drawing attention.” Scott pointed out a door near the back of the classroom with a sign on it that said rooftop access on it and pointed out how it could be the quick escape they needed. Stiles shut him down when he pointed out that the lock on the door was a deadbolt.

   “The janitor has a key,” Scott said after a few seconds of thought.

   “You mean his body has it.”

   “I can get it. I can find him by scent, by blood.”

   “Well, gee, that sounds like an incredibly terrible idea. What else you got?”

   Scott shook his head, his mind made up. “I’m getting the key.”

   “Are you serious?” Allison questioned, apparently having heard at least the last line of the conversation.

   “Well, it’s the best plan. Someone has to get the key if we want to get out of here,” he told her. But while Scott was right about it being their best plan, it was still very much a bad one, because even if he and Stiles both went out there a confrontation between them and the Alpha would still likely end in the Alpha’s favor.

   “You can’t go out there unarmed,” pointed out. In response, Scott grabbed a flimsy pointer finger stick that was leaning against the blackboard and could easily be snapped like a twig, much like the Alpha would do to Scott if he left the classroom.

   “Well it’s better than nothing,” Scott defended when he saw that everyone was looking at him like he was a complete idiot, which he was in this case.

   “There’s gotta be something else,” Stiles told him because while he wasn’t very happy with his friend right now he didn’t want the other teen to die.

   “There is,” Lydia said, pointing out the cabinet of chemicals next to Allison.

   “What are we gonna do, throw acid on him?” Stiles asked in slight irritation, which altogether wasn’t a terrible idea, and could possibly provide at least a distraction if it didn’t happen to just piss the Alpha off.

   “No. Like a fire bomb,” Lydia told him, clearly done with all the sarcasm Stiles had been using during all of this. “In there is everything you need to make a self-igniting molotov cocktail.”

   “Self-igniting-”

  “Molotov cocktail,” Lydia finished while glaring at Stiles like she was ready to throw him to the Alpha. When everyone but Stiles looked at her in question as to why the hell she would even know how to make something like that she said she read about it online.

   “We don’t have a key for that either,” Stiles pointed out, to which Jackson responded with an eye roll before simply breaking the glass by ramming his jacket-covered elbow through it.

   Lydia gathered all the ingredients she would need while swiping a conical flask and cork from a nearby table. They all sat in anticipation as Lydia made the self-igniting molotov cocktail, Allison pacing the row of desks, Stiles by the stairwell door biting his nails, Scott leaning against the table Lydia was working at, and Jackson handing his girlfriend ingredients when prompted. After all the ingredients were added Lydia lightly mixed the fluid before capping the flask with the cork and sliding it over to Scott.

   “No. No, this is insane,” Allison protested. “You can’t do this. You cannot go out there.”

   “We can’t just sit here and wait for Stiles’ dad to check his messages.”

   “You could die. Don’t you get that? He’s killed three people.”

   “And we’re next. Somebody has to do something,” Scott argued.

   “Scott, just stop. Do you remember… Do you remember when you told me you knew whether or not I was lying? That I had a tell. So do you. You’re a horrible liar. And you have been lying all night. Just… Just, please… Please don’t go,” she begged him, tears brimming in her eyes. “Please don’t leave us. Please.” For a minute Scott seemed like he would cave.

    “Lock it behind me,” Scott directed towards Stiles, trying to walk away but Allison stopped him once more and drew him into a kiss both as a last resort and in case she had to say goodbye. Clearly regretful, Scott walked away from Allison after the kiss and moved to the door once again before leaving entirely.

BREAK

“I don’t get this,” Allison muttered from where she sat curled up on one of the desks, everyone gathered near her, Stiles the most separated from the group. “I don’t get why he’s out there, why he left us. And I can’t… I can’t stop my hands from shaking.”

  “It’s okay,” Jackson reassured her in a low comforting voice as he grabbed her hands to stop them from shaking. “It’s okay, it’s gonna be okay.” Stiles looked at Jackson with disdain, and glowered a little at the quick smirk he saw appear briefly on the jackass’s face. Lydia seemed slightly confused as to why her boyfriend was comforting someone else instead of her. 

BREAK

After a few more minutes of stewing in silence, Lydia suddenly spoke.

   “Jackson, you handed me the sulfuric acid, right?” she asked. “It has to be sulfuric acid. It won’t ignite if it’s not.”

   “I gave you exactly what you asked for, didn’t I?” Lydia jumped a little at the harshness of his tone.

   “Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure you did.”

   Stiles looked at Jackson questioningly, both due to his aggression and his avoidance of Lydia’s question. At the scent of irritation and malice Stiles looked over to the table in a slight panic seeing what he was almost positive was the sulfuric acid that he knew had not been handed to Lydia earlier.

BREAK

Everyone whipped their heads in the direction of the door as a loud roar echoed through the school. Stiles had to fight to keep from covering his ears and flashing his eyes at the intensity of it. What surprised him though was that in response to the sound Jackson fell to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain while grasping the back of his neck. The surprise managed to keep Stiles from losing control and allowed him to notice three healing marks on the back of Jackson's neck. Marks that he was pretty sure were the product of a werewolf's claws.

   Lydia and Allison rushed to Jackson’s aid and helped him off the ground. When they didn’t let him go the first time he said he was okay, he broke out of their grasp and reassured them once again, in a more irritated tone, that he was okay, seeming miraculously healed from all the pain he had been experiencing.

   “What’s on the back of your neck?” Stiles inquired as Jackson slapped away the hand that was pointing to the injury.

   “I said, I’m fine,” he said, once again avoiding giving an actual answer.

   “Well it’s been there for days and you won’t tell me what happened,” Lydia chimed.

   “As if you care,” Jackson muttered.

   Stiles stiffened when he heard low growling and footsteps coming down the hall, ones he knew for a fact weren’t the Alpha’s. No one seemed to notice though, caught up in the argument. When he heard the snap of the lock he barked at everyone to shut up so that he could focus on the heartbeat he heard outside the door.

  It was Scott. A possibly out-of-control Scott whose erratic heartbeat started slowing down, before Stiles and the others heard something snap, something Stiles was pretty sure was the key to the room.

   Allison started yelling for Scott and banging against the door, desperately trying to get out of the room Scott had now trapped them in. Lydia yelled at Allison to stop, asking them all to listen. For a second Stiles didn’t hear anything, too occupied by Scott to hear it. But it only took a second before he could hear what Lydia had somehow heard before him.

   The wail of police sirens.

   All four teens ran to the windows just in time to see several cop cars speed into the parking lot. Stiles’ father at the forefront of all of them.

BREAK

“You’re sure it was Derek Hale?” the Sheriff questioned.

   “Yes,” Scott urged. Stiles on the other hand refused to speak on the matter, still not willing to throw Derek under the bus like that.

   “What about the janitor?” Scott asked.

   “We’re still looking,” he told the two boys.

   “Did you check under the bleachers? Under them.”

   “Yeah, Scott we looked. We pulled them out just like you asked, there’s nothing.”

   “I’m not making this up.”

   “I know I believe you. I do.”

   “No you don’t” Scott argued. “You have this look like you feel bad for me. Like you want to believe me, but I know you don’t.”

   “Listen to me. We’re gonna search this whole school. We’re going to find him. Okay, I promise.” Their attention was drawn by someone calling for the Sheriff. “Stay here. Both of you,” he told them, directing the last part more towards Stiles. Which was fair as all he wanted to do right now was run and find out what happened to Derek.

   “Well, we survived,” Scott commented, as this was his plan in the first place. “That’s still good right.” Not that some of them could say the same , Stiles thought bitterly.

   “When we were in the chemistry room, it walked right by us,” Stiles pointed out. “You don’t think that it heard us? You don’t think it knew exactly where we were.”

   “Then how come we’re still alive?”

   “It wants us in its pack, Scott. You more than me for some reason. When you came to the door Scott, I could smell your anger, I could practically feel your bloodlust. What does that tell you?”

   “It wants me to get rid of my old pack,” Scott realized.

   “That’s right. Allison, Lydia, Jackson. Maybe even me.”

   “The Alpha doesn’t want to kill you guys. He wants me to do it.” As he was saying this Scott realized something. “That’s not the worst part.”

   “Then what the hell is, Scott?”

   “I wanted to do it. I wanted to kill you. Whatever he did to me, it made me…” Scott trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

   Before they could dwell on this further, they noticed someone being tended to in an ambulance. Deaton.

   “How did you-”

   “Get out?” the man finished for him. “Not easily. And from what they tell me, I'm alive because of you. I think I owe you a raise,” the man joked.

   Stiles didn't trust him for a second.

   “Guy’s come on,” the Sheriff suddenly interrupted. “Let the EMTs do their job. You can talk to him later."

   As the Sheriff put Stiles in his squad car Scott ran off briefly to check on Allison. Whatever talk they had clearly wasn’t good though, since when he sat down Stiles could tell Scott was holding back tears. He wasn’t the only one though, as with everything over he himself was struggling not to fall apart.

   One thing was for sure though, if Derek really was dead, if the Alpha took his body. Stiles would stop at nothing to kill the bastard himself.

Chapter Text

Stiles had been kind of numb since what happened at the school. He hadn’t talked to Cora since they had practically sentenced her to a twenty-four/seven police presence with Derek thought to be on the lam by the Beacon Hills Sheriff department. Nothing but an I’m sorry text on the way home.

   She responded, but he hasn’t read it. Hasn’t read a single text he’s gotten, or answered any calls since what happened if he’s being honest. None except his dad’s, of course.

   He’s called Derek’s phone a couple of times, just to hear his voice. Left a voicemail once or twice. He’s not sure what happened to the older teen’s phone. If it was on him when the alpha killed him or he left it at home or it somehow made its way into evidence at the station. If it was the latter he probably would have been brought in for questioning by now he supposes, or would be eventually anyway.

   At one point he thought about drowning his sorrows behind the guise of helping Scott get over his break up with Allison but he hasn’t really been able to stomach being around his supposed best friend since everything went down. It’s also getting closer and closer to the full moon and he’s not quite sure he can keep himself from mauling the other boy.

   For now he’ll try to focus on school, and avoiding Cora while there.

   He noticed his dad in the office before the day started, he was only able to catch the tail end of everything but when he was leaving the man spotted Stiles waiting.

   “What’s going on?” he blurted. “Have- Have you found Derek yet?”

   “Don’t you have a test?” was all the man responded with.

   “Just listen to me,” he said while his father kept trying to usher him to class. “I just need you to be careful tonight, okay? Especially tonight.”

   “I’m always careful.”

   “Dad, you’ve never faced this kind of thing before. Not like this.”

   “I know, that’s why I brought in people that have,” the man tried to assure, looking over at a couple of guys in monkey suits a few feet away. “State detectives.”

   “Go take your test.” Stiles hesitated as he looked from his dad back to the detectives, but eventually he left with a defeated sigh.

   He wanted to tell his dad everything, he just couldn’t. Knowing was just as bad as not knowing at this point, and he wouldn’t be the only one affected. Cora, Scott, Derek; it was their secret too even if for one of them, as much as it killed him inside, it didn’t really matter anymore.

   When he gets to his first period Scott’s already there, sitting in the back where they usually sit. Looking away he sits in the empty seat furthest from his friend which garners him a hurt look from Scott and a confused one from Harris of all people, but the man starts to explain the testing rules either way. As much as the jackass could anyway.

   Stiles did his best to focus on the paper, but it was kind of hard. There were so many noises and smells invading his senses and emotions swimming in his head. But he knew the material, he was good at school, and hopefully he could get through this with at least a ‘b.’

   Apparently he wasn’t the only one feeling everything creep up on him because only about ten minutes into the test Scott got up from his seat and rushed out of the classroom. As Harris called after the other teen, Stiles debated going after him before eventually also getting up. The last thing he needed was Scott losing control in the middle of a school day.

   Stiles ignored the call of his name as well as he followed the smell of Scott’s panic to the locker room. Even before he reached the door he could hear the labored breathing and racing heart of the younger boy and knew exactly what was happening. Inside the locker room steam was billowing from the shower the other teen was using to try and calm himself down. Stiles approached the shower stalls wearily just in case Scott had shifted and would react poorly to the presence of another shifter, when he got there though all was well.

   Scott turned to him as he shut off the shower head, his hair, skin, and the pants he didn’t bother to take off soaking wet.

  “Stiles- Help- I-I can’t -I can’t-” the other teen tried to stutter between breaths. Stiles just rolled his eyes and rifled through the bag he picked up along the way -the one Scott had dropped in the hall- and grabbed the inhaler kept inside before tossing it to him.

   “Use that.” Scott questioned it at first but at Stiles’ continued urging complied.

   “I was having an asthma attack?” the boy gasped.

   “No, you were having a panic attack. Though apparently thinking it was an asthma attack actually stopped it,” he shrugged.

   “How’d you know to do that?”

   “Used to get them after mom died.” Something Scott wouldn’t know as he didn’t move to Beacon Hills until Middle School. “Not fun.”

   “I looked at her and-”

   “I’m going to stop you right there, I couldn’t give two shits about your love life right now. Not after-” he couldn’t bring himself to say it. “I came to make sure you didn’t lose control. Now get your shit together before you screw us both, or I’m going to chain you up and make sure it hurts.”

    Ignoring the hurt look that popped up on Scotts face he turned to leave, hoping that just this once Harris would let him retake the test.

BREAK

As Coach’s voice rang through the locker room he couldn’t help but regret coming to practice. The only reason he was here at all was to make sure Scott didn’t go off the rails and now he just wanted to be home curled up in bed in a cocoon of depression like he had been the last couple of days.

   Some people looked at him weird when he seemed to be doing whatever he could to avoid Scott. He may not be the most popular person but he was still known for being practically attached at the hip with the other teen. It was probably even more apparent something was wrong when he didn’t suddenly start screaming with joy when Coach announced he had been moved up to first line. Instead all he did was sigh and think about the unnecessary attention that may bring if he actually tried to play and play well.

   Then Scott was announced as Co-Captian and he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Scott hadn’t even been on first line for a whole season and Coach had already given him a position bound to sew discourse. There was no way for this to end besides poorly.

   Deciding not to dwell on it he left the locker room as everyone else did only to almost immediately get dragged away by tiny but surprisingly strong hands. Cora. Who he had been avoiding for days and had finally gotten fed up with it.

   He didn’t struggle as he was dragged through the halls and let himself be thrown into a janitor’s closet. Considering what happened the other night he found the irony to be a bit poetic.

   “How could you let this happen?” were the first words that came out of the girl’s mouth. “He trusted you and now his name is plastered all over the news. I’m being followed everywhere by cops so he can’t even come home or call or anything.”

   God, she still didn’t know. How could she not know?

   “You think I wanted this?” he couldn’t help but hiss, voice slightly desperate. “I tried okay. I told them it wasn’t Derek, that Scott was lying. But they didn’t listen to me. We were scared and lost, and Scott had answers and they ignored me when I tried to give a different one and now… Now I don’t know what the fuck to do because the alpha- and he’s- I don’t know-”

   He was on the verge of tears now, his brain not able to think anything coherently enough to get another sentence out. All that was in his head. Was that the Alpha had hurt Derek. That the man he cared about and held such deep feelings for was gone. His body was god knows where just like the janitors and he didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye. And somehow Cora still didn’t know .

   Suddenly he was being enveloped by small yet soothing arms. Cora of all people giving you a hug was definitely enough to make your brain stop for a second to reboot. He barely thought the girl was able to express any emotions besides anger or irritation.

   “He’ll turn up eventually,” she tried to soothe. “If there’s one place he knows he’ll be safe it’s with you.” And that just made Stiles want to cry even more.

   After a few more seconds, once he finally managed to get himself in check he pulled away with a sniffle. Cora just patted his arm with an awkward smile before leaving and telling him to get back to practice. It was another moment or two before he actually felt put together enough to leave.

   As he walked down the hall he eventually heard a noise he had become unfortunately familiar with in the past month. A tell tale smacking of lips -teenage hormones meant a lot of unintentional and slightly traumatizing voyeurism, if that was that right term. A look to the side revealed a rather familiar head or strawberry blonde hair, and another mop of dark brown curls.

   Not a couple of hours ago Scott had a panic attack over his and Allison’s break up and now he was imploding any chance he had of making up with the girl by making out with her best friend. Tonight truly was going to be a shit show.

BREAK

“Scott,” he heard Melissa call out as he entered the McCall home with a duffle bag in tow.

   “Stiles,” he answered with little enthusiasm as the woman turned a corner. Stiles cared about Mama McCall very much but it was hard not to let his irritation of having to be here to ensure Scott -who was very clearly not in control if practice said anything- didn’t end up rampaging through town tonight.

   “Key,” Melissa said as she looked at his hand.

   “Oh yeah, I had one made,” the boy shrugged. He had made a lot of keys for a lot of places and no one should be surprised about it, he did things like this all the time.

   “That doesn’t surprise me.” She had practically helped raise him, so that tracked. “Scares me, but it doesn’t surprise me.”

   Without much thought he let go of the duffle bag he was holding and it hit the floor with a heavy thump as the chains inside clanged against each other.

   “What is that?” Melissa asked.

   “School project,” he told her after a second or two of awkward silence.

   “Stiles, he’s okay right?”

   “As good as someone can be after a break up, I guess.”

   “Oh, well, he just doesn’t talk to me all that much anymore,” she sighed.

   “Just been a bit of a rough week,” he tried to assure.

   “Yeah I get that,” she said, sounding kind of resigned. “Uh, be careful tonight.”

   “Yeah, you too.”

   “Full moon.” The comment made his whole body lockup.

   “W-What?” he stammered, poorly concealing his anxiety.

   “There’s a full moon tonight.” He was more than aware. The urge to shift, to draw blood with claws and fangs. Not towards the woman in front of him, no, but the origins of a thumping heart coming from upstairs. “You should see how the ER gets. Brings out all the nut jobs.”

   “Yeah,” he agrees with a relieved sigh. “Right.”

   “You know it’s actually where they came up with the word ‘lunatic’.” And with that little fun fact she left.

   Stiles stood there for a second, wondering if he should really be here. If he wanted to deal with one lunatic in particular. Instead he sighs, grabs the bag filled with metal and makes his way up stairs. When he arrives upstairs he pushes open the door to Scott’s bedroom and drops the duffle and looks over to the werewolf, unimpressed. The other teen is sitting there in a chair in the dark, a murderous glower on his face.

   “You know you’re mom still thinks you’re out, breaking curfew again,” he can’t help but snark, hoping the fact that Scott’s hiding from and worrying the only decent parent he has makes something click in that Cro-Magnon head of his.

   “Came in through the window,” was the muttered answer he got.

   “No shit,” he snipes, before bending down to start rifling through the chains and restraints he brought with him. “Let’s get set up.”

   “I’m fine.” Stiles just scoffs, pulling a chain from the bag as he stands once more.

   “The books I’ve read all say that werefoxes have a natural control, better than that of regular shifters, even when bitten,” he starts, slowly warping the chain around his hand. “I’m having trouble resisting the urge to shift, to punch you in your stupid face with that even stupider  serial killer look plastered on top of it.

   “If I’m struggling, then that means you’re moments away from snapping yourself.”

   That’s when Scott rises, inching slowly closer like the moon blind idiot he is, “You think I’m going to let you put those on me? To chain me up like a dog?”

   Stiles smirks, “No.”

   The other teen barely has a moment to look confused before Stiles is reeling his arm back and punching the werewolf as hard as he can with the fist wrapped in the iron chain. Scott staggers, falling on his ass as he yells out and cradles his now dislocated jaw. Stiles doesn’t give pause, he grabs the set of cuffs he had hidden in his back pocket, yanks on one of the boy’s wrist before linking him to the radiator right by the open bedroom window Scott had used to sneak past his mother.

   “The hell are you doing?” the boy yells at him, his jaw now healed as he attempts to break the cuffs by yanking at them.

   “Consider it pay back,” he snarls. “And protection from yourself, not that you deserve it.”

   Scott just sat there glaring and tried to lunge. Stiles just raised an eyebrow at the failed attempt of attacking him as the handcuff rattled against the radiator before turning around. He thought of leaving the other teen there to sulk but wanted to rub salt on the wound, his more vindictive nature shining through due to the full moon -or at least that’s what he was choosing to blame it on as he knew Scott would be doing the exact same thing when the time came. So he grabbed the duffle bag, and then went downstairs to grab one of the bottles of water kept in the McCall’s garage. From the duffle bag he grabbed a very special item he originally bought as a joke not that long after the werewolf revelation.

   When he got back to Scott’s room he told the other teen he’d brought him some water before revealing his little present. It was a white dog dish with the name ‘Scott’ drawn crudely in big black letters. He had wasted a whole sharpie on the thing and was fueled by absolute glee as he held the dog bowl up and slowly poured the bottle of water into the dish before placing it within reaching distance of the cuffed boy.

   That turned out to be a mistake when Scott, predictably, sent the water dish flying as he turned to leave once more, yelling, “I’m going to kill you,” as the water hit Stiles’ back and neck.

   He froze for a moment, before turning around with flaming eyes.

   “You kissed her, Scott. I have to hear you whining about Allison for days and then watch you implode your relationship by making out with her best friend. All the while I have to deal with trying to keep you from going off the rails and trying to figure out how to tell someone I was actually starting to think of as a friend that someone me and her both care about is not only dead but that his body is missing. Oh yeah and she blames me for a problem you caused.

   “And I still haven’t even managed to tell her or figure out where the alpha could have possibly taken his body. I can’t even rely on you, not that I have been at all since this nightmare started. Because you’ve been an unbelievable, piece of crap friend.”

   “You could have stopped it,” Scott muttered, as he looked up at him with those dark eyes that Stiles had never seen on the boy’s face before.

   “What?” he couldn’t help but say back in disbelief.

   “I may have said Derek was the one going after us, but you could have tried harder to shut me down,” Scott said, and Stiles just left, couldn’t stand to hear this or be around the douche bag for any longer than he really had to be. “Maybe you spoke up that one time but you didn’t push back. You could have kept going, made sure we didn’t use Derek as the back up plan. You could have said something when your dad asked! But you stayed quiet. It’s your fault there’s a man hunt for him, and it’s your fault Cora is alone right now!”

   Stiles shut his eyes and pressed his palms against his ears so hard he could practically feel his skull protesting at the pressure. He just had to get through the night and then he could leave this house and Scott behind and not look back. He could ignore the voice inside telling him that everything the werewolf was saying was the truth.

BREAK

It had been a little while from the previous outburst and for the most part Scott had been blissfully silent. Struggled against the cuffs and the radiator, growled and let out mostly empty threats -at least they were because he was restrained- and Stiles had been able to stop himself from tearing such easy and irritating prey apart piece by bloody piece.

   He hadn’t done so much as dig claws into his palms, only feeling the occasional flash or his eyes or canines extending slightly when he was particularly irritated by the teenager in the next room. Even if what he really wanted to do was let the animal take over just like that time at his house and curl up against that shirt he had never quite managed to return. That still smelled a bit like sandalwood and leather.

   “Stiles, please let me out,” Scott eventually started. “It’s the full moon, I swear. You know I wouldn’t do any of this on purpose.” He didn’t. “Please, Stiles let me out. It’s starting to hurt. It’s not like the first time. It’s the full moon. It’s Allison.”

   Stiles repressed a snarl at that. Everything was about Allison now. Allison and Scott and how every single one of them was going to die because they thought they were in some stupid Romeo and Juliet retelling where they might just survive this time. No one mattered but them. Not the war they might start or the ones they left behind.

   Every excuse Scott was making right now. Every plea and platitude only stoked Stiles’ anger more. Even so he almost changed his mind. As his once best friend cried and struggled more he had to hold himself back from rushing into the room because no matter how pissed he was, or how much that idiot had let him down he still cared. He still saw Scott as his brother and him being in pain hurt Stiles.

   But then, eventually, everything went quiet. No heavy breathing, no insults or begging. Not even metal clanking against metal. He knew almost immediately something was wrong and shot up from where he had been sitting against the wall next to Scott’s bedroom. When he rushed inside of course there was nothing but moonlight shining through the window he should have shut and a pair of slightly bloody cuffs laying on the floor.

BREAK

Stiles closed the door to his bedroom and couldn’t help but fall back against it as he curled up, tears in his eyes. After Scott escaped he had gone driving around to look for him. He didn’t really have much of a choice since the only other person he could talk to about any of this was under surveillance by people who didn’t actually know shit about what was really going on.

   So he drove around the preserve, trying to find any sign of a feral werewolf out for blood. Instead all he found was an ambulance and about a dozen vehicles from the sheriff’s department. He couldn’t help but jump to the worst conclusion when he saw such a large police presence. Couldn’t help but start searching for his dad among the crowd of police officials. Couldn’t help but start to panic when he couldn’t find the man or the way he practically fell apart when the same man tapped him on the shoulder.

   He couldn’t even give a proper explanation when the man eventually managed to pull away from his son’s iron grip. He had to lie, again. Had to hold his tongue and blame it on the mountain lion attacks and what happened at the school. And while it wasn’t technically a lie it still made him wish he could spill his guts, that even if it was probably the most honest he had been with his dad in the last few weeks there was still that tiny hint of suspicion buried within the worry of the sheriff’s eyes.

   He hadn’t had it in him to keep looking for Scott, or even check up on Allison like had been planning to. The idea of peeping into some girl’s bedroom window, especially one that he knew and happened to come from a family of hunters, made him uncomfortable anyway. Instead he just came straight home and decided to drown in self pity and maybe bury his face in the dumb shirt while he did so. Though he hadn’t quite made it to that second part before he transformed into a heap on the ground.

   “I was wondering where that went,” the voice made him pause. He knew that voice, he had been hearing practically everywhere since that stupid night at the school.

   He was almost scared to look up. Worried that it was just his grief and the full moon making up some kind of hallucination. But he did, had to see, had to know if the man was really alive. And when he did, he burst into sobs. Not quite, but powerful waves of tears but body shaking heaves of emotions that wrung through his vocal cords while salt water poured down his face and a very panicked look crossed the face of a man he thought dead just moments ago.

   He didn’t even hear the swear or the flurry of movement that came after his outburst, just felt the warm and sturdy grip that wrapped itself around him. He gripped onto the piece of fabric he was held against -one that wreaked so wonderfully of sandalwood and leather and just a bit of sweat and panic- and let himself break for a little bit. Eventually the tears calmed into sniffles and he finally reduced his iron grip on the -unknowing- love that had returned to him. Though he refused to let go completely, not wanting Derek to suddenly disappear once more.

   The man pulled back some not long after that. He didn’t try to dislodge Stiles’ hold on his shirt, simply moved his own to cup one of Stiles cheeks while his other hand brushed the tears from the younger teen’s eyes. Stiles practically felt his heart stop for a second at the action.

   “Well I was right,” Derek said, a small somewhat bittersweet smile on his face that took his breath away, “you look beautiful when you cry.”

   Stiles couldn’t help the laugh that broke free, “Dude that’s so not true. I was just full on ugly crying. Not even Lydia could look good crying like that.” Derek’s smile seemed to falter a little at that and Stiles couldn’t help but feel awful.

   “Well you’re wrong.”

   It was such a sweet moment, a calm shared between them that he didn’t know how to respond. Then that tiny bit of anger started to bubble up and he couldn’t help but rear his arm back and punch Derek as hard as possible in the shoulder.

   “Ow, what the hell Stiles.”

   “You douchebag, you had me worried for days that you were dead and you only just now show your face.” Derek suddenly didn’t look as pissed at the sudden abuse. “I avoided Cora for days because I didn’t know how to tell her, and even when she confronted me I still couldn’t get the words out. Screw you, and don’t you ever do that again.”

   “She would have felt it,” the werewolf muttered after a couple of seconds of silence.

   “What?”

   “Cora, she would have felt the bond break if I had died.” Stiles blanched at the fact, at the implications it left. Not just that but the the fact that he somehow knew, deep down despite all the grief and worry he would have felt it break too and even if it was only small there had been that sliver of knowledge held back by all the evidence and negative self talk, blaming himself for what happened, that Derek had somehow survived. That even if the alpha had dragged him off somewhere there wasn’t really any reason for him to have.

   So he didn’t say anything else. Didn’t want to dwell on all the heavy shit in the air right now and all the stuff they should probably still talk about. Just used the grip he still had on Derek’s shirt to real him back in and hold him tight.

   For now the world and all the stupid supernatural bullshit could wait, he had a fugitive to snuggle the shit out of, whether said fugitive liked it or not. Though the lack of protest and the arms that once again found their way back around him, didn’t give any indication that Derek didn’t want this, and the idea made him smile. Even if only just.