Chapter Text
PROLOGUE
“Mischief, come with me,” his mother called out with a hand outstretched. The little boy in question runs up to hold his mother’s hand.
They walk hand in hand out into the forest that surrounds Beacon Hills.
“Mom? Where are we going?” Mischief had been worried for a while now for his mother. The illness had begun taking its toll on her mind. What hurt the most were the times when she forgot Mischief was her son. At times she’d look at him curiously with a smile and ask him who he was. The worst were the times when she’d nervously move away from him like he was a threat to her. But mostly, she simply forgot simple things like her keys to the jeep or to have her lunch.
Today, she looked down at him with a smile and everything seemed right with the world.
“We’re going for a walk,” she exclaimed chirpily. “It’s too boring being cooped up at home all the time, you know?” Mischief smiled back ignoring the alarms that were going off in his head, ignoring the logical part of his brain that told him his mother should just take rest at home.
‘It’ll be fine,’ he told himself as they roamed the forest. It was nice. School was a little too hard and a little too boring for him to focus on. It seemed like the teachers were out to get him at every turn. “A trouble maker,” they called him. Heather wouldn’t talk to him much anymore. Scott had his own problems to deal with even if he wouldn’t say it. Besides, Mischief hadn’t spent quality time with his mother since she had quit work because of the sickness.
“I found it again!” Turning, Mischief saw his mother looking intently on a large tree stump. Particularly, she eyed the wooden doors on the ground next to it with, funnily enough, mischief in her eyes. She turned to grin at Mischief with a glint in her eyes. Mischief was again reminded of the times when he and his mother pranked his father. It was bad enough when it was just Mischief, but it was really fun when he tagged teamed with his mother.
It made him regain a spark of hope. Perhaps his mother would get better.
“Mischief, you know Dad’s coming home early today. Let’s pull a prank on him!”
“What prank?”
“Hm,” his mother drawled with a smirk. “Let’s play hide and seek.” Saying this, she opened the heavy wooden doors and ushered him to follow. Hesitantly, Mischief followed.
The insides were like an old room. The only light that shone was from the sunlight streaming from the open door. It wouldn’t last long because of the slowly setting sun. The room looked like it was used regularly once. But now, it laid abandoned. At the far end of the room was a thicket of roots from the large stump above. The roots being so thick and all encompassing, it made up the wall on that side.
“Let’s hide here and wait for Dad to find us.” With that, panic bubbled up inside Mischief. Pranks were fine, but his mother wasn’t in the best shape to carry out tricky pranks like this. They were in the middle of a forest !
“Mom, I don’t think this is a good idea. I’m scared,” Mischief replied shakily. He looked down nervously at his fingers, playing with them. His mother puts a hand on his head and he looks up at her, his tongue peeking out now and again as a nervous habit. She ruffled his hair and smiled down at him.
“Don’t worry, baby. I’m here by your side.”
Just like that, he felt safe again. They sat down with their backs to the roots.
“Dad would flip, wouldn’t he?” Mischief asked with a slight nervous giggle, his fingers fiddling with his mother’s shirt. His mother laughed, hugging his head close to her chest. “How- how would he know how to find us? Where to find us?”
“Oh, damn it,” his mother exclaimed as she moved to get up. “I forgot to leave him a message for when he gets back. He wouldn’t know we went to the woods.”
“Then let’s go back,” Mischief says as he gets up but his mother stops him.
“Nah,” she drawls, “I’ll run and leave him a note. Wait for me here, sweetie.”
“No! Mom, don’t leave me here alone,” he begged as fear gripped his heart. The sun was soon to set and if he stayed here till then-
His mother clasped his cheeks in her hands and smiled, her face warm and full of that fuzzy feeling you’d normally feel sometimes.
“Don’t worry, my baby. I’ll be right back. Close your eyes if you’re scared and I'd be back before you know it.”
“Okay,” he agreed slowly and closed his eyes.
He heard a thud and feared the doors were closed as the light behind his eyelids faded to nothing yet he dared not open his eyes.
Hours passed as Mischief’s fear bubbled back up again. Did his mother forget? It was extremely likely, his gut told him.
He ran forward, tripping and groping as he finally reached the doors. Tears spilled out as his worst fear was confirmed. Being as weak as he was, not to mention the doors being heavy, old and rusted, wouldn’t budge.
“Mom!” He yelled repeatedly to no avail.
His stomach growled. It must be dinner time. He kept banging at the doors till his hands hurt too much and his throat became sore.
As a cold breeze passed by through a small draft, he shivered and went back, groping in the dark to the roots. As the room grew colder, he hid between the roots. He closed his eyes hoping for the day to end. He hoped his father would find him. Being the county Sheriff had its benefits, he supposed.
Just as he was close to drifting off into sleep, he heard a voice.
“ Yo , boya.’
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Noah Stilinski comes back late in the night only to find his beautiful wife smiling gayly at him. His heart skips a beat as he falls in love with her all over again. He kisses her and makes his way into the house and into her open arms. It was warm inside the house.
He hummed in satisfaction. “It’s good to be home,” he sighs out with a smile and walks into the dining room, out of his wife’s warm embrace. He looks at the food laid out on the table for two people waiting and felt love once more.
“Is Mieczyslaw in bed already.” he asked with a chuckle. He was worried for him lately. ‘It’s probably hard on him,’ he thinks. He had taken it upon himself to look after Claudia when Noah wasn’t around. At his age, he should only be thinking of school or friends. Instead he had to grow up too soon what with the news of knowing his mother will most probably- He doesn’t want to think about it.
He turned to look at his wife frown, confused. Something wasn’t right.
“Mieczyslaw,” he begins slowly, cautiously, “is in bed, right?”
“Noah,” Claudia began hesitantly, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Where is he?”
The fear clutched his throat at the thought of what might’ve happened to his son. He runs up to his room only to find it empty.
“Mieczyslaw,” he yells as he runs around the house looking for him.
‘Oh God!’ He prays as he realizes his son was too young for all this. Too young to deal with a terminally ill mother. Too young to look after her when he couldn’t. Too young to grow up so fast. Too young. Just too young. He didn’t know where he even was much less if he was conscious. Was he conscious? He couldn’t sleep without his pillow. Where was he? It was cold outside. What if he became hypothermic? ‘It’s all my fault,’ he thought as he clutched his head.
“Mischief,” he calls out again and looks back to see his wife confused. He stalks back to her and grips her shoulder.
“Claudia, baby, I need to know where our son is.”
“Noah,” she began, worried, “we don’t have a son.”
Noah tightens the grip on his wife’s shoulder before letting her go, tired and anxious. He knew it wasn’t her fault. He knew Mischief was stronger and more mature for any kid his age. After all, he was the one who decided to take care of his mother whenever he couldn’t.
He was always stronger than Noah could ever be, weak as he may seem.
Just as he brushed away his wife’s touch, he noticed Claudia’s boots near the entrance, trailing mud and a few leaves. He had learnt enough from Mieczyslaw and Claudia’s pranks to look carefully for clues.
He immediately notified all on duty officers to search the forest for the missing boy and promptly stormed off.
It was past midnight and there were no signs of Mieczyslaw anywhere. Dispatch didn’t make headway. Noah was at the point of giving up but the thought hurt too much.
“Mischief!”
It was a last-ditch effort as he searched the area with his torch. There was a case long back of wild coyotes killing a man’s whole family and the thought that this was some odd karma loomed over him like a dark cloud.
It was then that he noticed something that looked like a fox. A small little thing that was mostly white with tufts of black fur here and there. It watched him carefully before walking slowly away. Noah didn’t know why he decided to follow it but as he did, he found his son curled up on top of a large tree stump that he was sure wasn’t there a few seconds ago. He ran up to him, sighing in relief to find him peacefully sleeping. No signs of hypothermia.
Mieczyslaw Stilinski was found at 3:08 AM and his father swore it was because of an odd-looking fox.
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Later, Mischief lied through his teeth that he had wandered there himself to try and persuade his father that his mother had nothing to do with it. Noah was having none of it. He finally got away with it after he promised his father that he’d be with either Scott or Heather when Noah wasn’t at home for the most part. He knew Melissa would take any chance to push Scott out of Rafael’s way. Not to mention Scott loved staying over with Stiles. Heather was happy to help out and so was her mother, knowing the issue regarding Claudia.
A few days later Mischief looked up to his father during dinner. Claudia had to stay back in the hospital for her check-up leaving father and son at home together.
“Dad,” he began, his mouth full. Noah hummed back in question. “I’ve decided.”
“You have?” Mischief nodded.
“Stiles.” His dad frowned, shoving another mouthful of food. He didn’t particularly like that name after far too many bad memories.
“Are you sure?” He asked knowing in the end, it was his son’s decision.
“Yeah. Call me Stiles.”