Chapter Text
It’s hard to believe that nobody noticed Stiles falling apart after his being possessed by the Nogitsune. Stiles's eyes lost their mischievous glint, and the bags under his eyes that came with his newfound insomnia stood stark against his pale skin. His hands weren’t moving in the same way, not flailing about when he spoke - which he rarely did nowadays - but instead they shook all the time. Stiles didn’t go off on the random tangents about seemingly non-sequitur thoughts that popped into his head like he had before. Now, it seemed, he possessed no life energy anymore.
Well, in retrospect, Stiles had thought no one had noticed or paid attention to his deterioration, and he'd accepted that as that. Scott was still off with Kira once she came back from New Mexico, going back to ignoring his “bro” for his “hoe.” How does that saying go again? “Bros before hoes?” Yeah, that doesn’t happen like that in Stiles's life, especially since he was in highschool and most often times, no one noticed or, if they did, they went about their own way if someone was visibly struggling. Lydia seemed to be the only one in the McCall pack that had noticed Stiles's lack of energy, but after Stiles managed to barely convinced her of his fairing mental state, she let it completely leave her conscience. Everyone else in Scott's pack just didn't notice. And that was saying something, since werewolves and other supernatural creatures were often able to sense emotions. It kind of hurt. The sheriff, his dad, still cared about Stiles as much as a father could, but with the newfound stress of the supernatural made his dad stay at the station more to investigate past cases, wondering if the new knowledge he had would solve them. John didn’t notice either, and if the pack not noticing was like a scrape on the elbow, his dad not noticing that his son was falling apart at the seams hurt like getting stabbed in the gut, or maybe clawed through the stomach.
However unknown to Stiles, there were some people who did see what was going on. A lot of not noticing going on, he thought, foresight is like twenty-twenty vision, after all.
Stiles didn’t see that people saw his struggle until there were those who'd noticed it sitting across from him on the bench right next to his Jeep. Another part of the McCall pack not noticing was that they left Stiles alone at lunch – Stiles did text Scott every fifth period right before lunch, asking him if he wanted to hang out during lunch. However, the true alpha almost always had some excuse, and when he didn't - Scott simply didn't respond. He glanced up from his phone that he kept checking to see if Scott even started to text back, only to see who had just sat across from him and flinched a little bit at the sight of Vernon Boyd, Erica Reyes, and Isaac Lahey. They were just… sitting there and eating their lunch. Isaac smiled softly at him, which should have been the first indicator of their concern.
A million reasons for why they sat there flitted through Stiles’s mind immediately, but one stood out over the rest as he eyed the three werewolves with a suspicious gaze.
“Does Derek need something?” Stiles questioned with an eyebrow raised, hoping that he was showing enough sarcasm and fake smugness to get past their weird ass werewolf senses - they seemed faulty, with how little Scott, an actual alpha, didn't notice it.
Clearly, his forced bravado not working if the furrowed eyebrows and noses were anything to go by. “Not so fast Batman,” Erica rose a perfectly trimmed eyebrow right back at him, the smugness just as fake, but with underlying worry instead of underlying despair.
“We saw that you were alone, or well, you have been, which is kind of pitiful-,” Isaac was shoved harshly with an elbow from Cat Woman (Erica), effectively cutting off the scarf-covered teenager from continuing to degrade Stiles - although a third person perspective would have shown that Isaac was trying to tease him.
“It’s not pitiful, it’s frustrating. Your pack is supposed to pick up on these things,” Erica spoke, Boyd nodding in agreement that made Stiles’s eyes widen.
Stiles gritted his teeth lightly, realizing what Erica had meant after the shock of them seeing his despondency and replied under his breath, “I’m not a part of Scott’s pack. Skinny, defenseless, weighing one-hundred-forty pounds soaking wet me is not a part of the epic, super strong McCall Pack.” Maybe he shouldn’t have said that, looking at the three werewolves’ reactions. They all looked as surprised as Stiles had been a second ago, but their faces quickly fell to something more irate.
“Stiles, you are a part of his pack, or at least, you were…,” Isaac trailed off quietly as Stiles’s negative emotions started flowing out of his scent glands even more. It scared him that Stiles could completely keep his expression from showing his true feelings, and it somewhat reminded of when he still lived with his father.
“If I was, I clearly am not in his pack anymore, if you guys are noticing, and they aren’t,” Stiles laughed dryly after he finished speaking and bit his bottom lip to keep it from quivering. It was too ingrained into him from past comments and insults, that he shouldn't cry in front of others. “But yeah, no offense, you guys are great, but you don’t have to pity-hang out with me,” He said in the same depressed humorous voice, feeling as though he should make sure that the werewolves weren’t doing it out of a burden or feeling of responsibility. It’s happened before that way with others, probably the way that Scott had even become friends with him when they were five.
The three of them collectively sighed, and Erica stood up before walking over to Stiles’s side of the table, “That’s it, get up.” She grabbed the lanky teen from his armpits and pulled him to standing, raised her eyebrow once again, and then smiled a little bit at him in a first moment of showing her true feelings on her expression, “We’re ditching and taking you out to ice cream. Not out of pity, not out of responsibility, but because our pack is worried about you.” The other two werewolves nodded affirmatively and walked over to Stiles’s Jeep, jumping into the back seat. Erica hauled him over to his jeep and threw Stiles in the passenger seat, him squawking in surprise while his heart stopped aching a little bit for the first time since before the Nogitsune.