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Stiles is tired – so, so tired, he always is after a hunt, taking it out of him emotionally, mentally, and physically – but Lydia and Jackson and Allison and Scott and Malia and Kira are all in his apartment, de-escalating as they always do afterward. Not often for as long as this, but – with the brood here, with them helping out tonight, they’d decided to crash at his place for a while, talk about it.
Instead, so far, Scott and Jackson have raided his fridge, Kira’s made hot cocoa for herself, Lydia, and Stiles, Lydia’s taking a shower in his bathroom, and Malia’s watching reruns of JAG on TV, lying on the couch. Stiles is sitting in the chair next to her, cleaning and oiling his switchblade.
“So what do we think,” Lydia asks as she comes back down the stairs, hair wet lying around her shoulders, dressed in the same shirt she’d been wearing but having stolen a pair of Stiles’ sweatpants. He raises his eyebrows at her but she completely ignores him, picking up the cocoa from the counter and throwing Kira a thankful look.
“What do we think?” Jackson asks, sitting at the bar top next to his girlfriend and rubbing a hand on her back, no doubt trying to get his scent to overlap Stiles’; they may be pack, and Jackson doesn’t consciously fuck with Stiles anymore, but he’s never quite outgrown his high-school thinking regarding the crush Stiles had on Lydia for years, even though it’s clear nothing’s ever gonna happen between them by this point.
“About Derek. The brood. Stiles’ idiotic agreement.”
“We killed that lamia way fucking faster than we would have without them,” Stiles points out, even amongst Malia’s growling and Allison and Scott’s faces at the reminder.
“You still said yes to being a familiar,” Allison says, “To a vampire that unwillingly took your blood the first time.”
“And will not again without consent,” Stiles replies, “I don’t think he’s a bad person, I don’t trust him, but…we know he was telling the truth about them not draining bodies, and I’m okay with this if it means we get that extra little bit of help protecting Beacon Hills.”
“Which is a good point,” Scott speaks up, always the mediator, “I mean, I don’t like it, but it’s Stiles’ decision, ultimately, and. It’s not bad, knowing that we’ll have someone here happily protecting the town when we can’t be here.”
“I still don’t like it,” Malia growls out, having abandoned the pretense of continuing to watch her show. Stiles shakes his head.
“I don’t think any of us like it. I just think it could prove to be very useful.”
They’re all quiet for a long moment and Stiles finishes up with his blade, closing it and tossing it on the coffee table before getting up, going over the counter to grab the cocoa Kira made for him. She, for her part, has been leaning against the counter in kitchen this entire time, sipping on her drink and quietly watching the rest of them. Now, she’s staring at the floor, clearly lost in thought.
“How much do we actually know about vampires, broods, and their habits?” She asks, breaking the quiet. Everyone looks to Lydia, who shrugs.
“On this topic, Stiles actually knows more than me.”
“Just that I’ve read more lit than you have,” Stiles says, sitting at the dining room table with Scott and Ally, “Which is in itself not too much. We just don’t have access to a whole lot written on them, because they’ve always been considered especially dangerous and typically are killed on the spot, surprise attack since they’re so strong. Plus the fact that, regardless of what hunters want to think, vampires are as intact with their humanity as any ‘wolf is, meaning there’s a huge spectrum of who they are. You can’t pin vampires down much besides the basics, like that they need blood to survive and don’t sleep.”
“I can ask my mom, see what she might be able to provide for us,” Kira tells them, and they all nod.
“I think this could prove to be a good alliance,” Allison allows, “But I think we should definitely keep our defenses up for now. And Stiles?” She’s staring at him like she thinks she’ll be able to convince him to get out of this agreement right now. He raises his eyebrows as she says his name.
“If you every feel uncomfortable about any of this, I think I speak for all of us when I say feel free to break that promise. We don’t need them enough to let them chomp on you.”
There’s a few rumbles of agreement, one loud “aye!” from Scott, and Stiles grins a little manically, feeling close to his pack, his friends, who clearly do care about him.
“I think it’ll be worth it, regardless, but I will let you know if it feels too much at any point.”
Lydia’s eyeing him, still, even as they all move past the topic and Malia turns back to JAG, Kira going out to join her girlfriend on the couch, Scott and Allison talking about their workday tomorrow, and Stiles knows what she’s thinking about, doesn’t even have to guess. Because at the end of the day, she knows the second most about vampires, has translated too many texts for him to even count and a few of those had passages about vampires in them, and he knows she’s thinking about that one regarding vampire myths and soulmates, in accompaniment with Derek’s assessment that Stiles’ blood is the best he’s tasted in near four hundred years from earlier.
But she doesn’t have to worry, because Stiles doesn’t believe in soulmates, for one, and he sure as hell doesn’t believe his soulmate is a vampire. He’s doing this because he thinks it’ll be good for the town, for their people, for them.
He shakes his head at Lydia, who sucks in a breath and turns away from him, whispering something to Jackson, and for now, that’s it, he supposes. Until Derek actually gives him a text, asks him to come over so he can drink, there’s nothing really much more to say. He lets himself get sucked into Allison and Scott’s conversation, ready to listen and talk until they all get too tired and head to their own houses.