Work Text:
New beginnings
It was at the tail end of senior year when the pack finally made the decision to take Stile’s memories. As it would happen Stiles had just gotten beaten within an inch of his life again forcing the sheriff to feel like he was forced to come to the group of teenagers. He begged for them to find a way to get his son out of the supernatural life once and for all. The pack looked at the desperate man and could only share in his pain. They too feared for their friend’s life.
Within a week the pack had begun to search for the answer to save their friend and on the night of the full moon the answer was thrust into their awaiting hands by the vet. They would take his memories of anything supernatural and to stop the memories from reforming they would separate themselves from him. When the time came to take his memories, the pack didn’t feel any regret only a relief that they had saved their dear friends life.
Stiles after the deed was done had memories of his friends, but they were altered to not include the supernatural. If he remembered a pack meeting, then it was a movie night filled with horror flicks instead. And although his memories were greatly altered, he remembered never sharing all his secrets with his Beacon Hills friends. His memories might be failing him around supernatural aspects, but he remembers that somewhere deep down he didn’t trust them with the whole of his life. He didn’t even trust his dad, who seemed absent from his memories and life of late. He sure as hell didn’t trust Scott who had always seemed to push him to the side anytime a girl so much looked in the other boy’s direction.
So, it actually wasn’t all that concerning to Stiles when they began to pull away from him. One day they were all watching of American Werewolf in London (somewhere deep down he thought there was a joke in there somewhere) then his once friends were separating themselves from his life with clearly no regard to how it might be affecting him. In those last few moments when Stiles thought about what had went wrong in his friendships, he could only feel anger after all he had always been there for them. Helping Lydia not feel as separated, including Erica and Isaac, and hell even talking Scott down from suicide once. In the end, Stiles does the only thing he can think to do and decides to take his boyfriends advice and fuck them(not literally Alex inputted at Reggie’s strange expression). If they didn’t want to be in his life and he didn’t trust them then why would he care if they left. He had people who cared about him even if those in Beacon Hills didn’t.
One the other side of things, the pack begins to feel relief when Stiles begin to pull away from trying to talk to them although they still tried to watch him from afar. Afterall they did this for his own good. While they watched him from afar, they began to see that when he should be going home at the end of the day (to an empty house no less) he pulls onto the freeway instead. The pack see him begin to wear t-shirts with bands from alternative and punk culture; the look in his eyes change from hurt and confused too angry and confident. Scott’s puppy eyes especially come out when his best friend starts to smell strongly of other people for the first time since Stiles’ memory loss began. But more than anything the pack begins to let Stiles go and let him live because without them he was much safer well at least in their minds.
It goes without being said that Scott is the last to really let Stiles go and one day when Stiles walks into school about a month after the spell and knocks shoulders with him a blossom of hurt sparks in Scott’s chest. Stiles smiles at him faintly and says a quick sorry before walking away as if he didn’t even now the other boy as if their years of friendship were for not. Scott pulled away as tears being to form in his eyes. Regret pooled into his belly as he let his once friend go.
The truth that Stiles hadn’t ever gotten around to tell they pack nor trust them enough was Stiles who preferred to be called Reggie had grown up in San Francisco and had formed deep bonds with two boys that lived there. When the pack had took his memories and denied his friendship, he felt even more inclined to focus his energy into his band and boyfriends. Beacon Hills became a place where his father lived, and he once had a group of friends. He moved into the Molina’s house and Ray who Reggie had always looked up to began to accidently take the place of the boy’s father. Ray cared about Reggie and he knew the boy better than most other people in the world so of course he had room for one more. His Rose would have loved Reggie and welcomed him as well. Reggie could spend more of his time with Alex and Luke this way too. He now had a sister and a brother in Julie and Carlos. Not to mention a best friend in the form of Flynn so why would he stick around Beacon Hills? What was really left for him, an empty house, a school full of familiar faces, but no friends, and a grave instead of his mother?
Time began to pass, and it took the pack longer than they would like to think to notice that Stiles hadn’t been to Beacon Hills High in some time. His scent was gone from the hallways and they couldn’t remember the last time they had seen the other boy. His locker empty and his desk abandoned. As if he was a ghost, they had all once dreamed of. Nothing was left of their former friend it seemed. Just the last whispers of rumors on people’s lips.
Concern and curiosity pooled in the stomachs of those who had been closest to the boy, but it was Lydia who finally acted. She gritted her teeth and asked Danny only to find out that Stiles chose to graduate early and was quote “on the edge of great.”
Scott gave the other boy the most hurt expression he could scrounge up before asking, “What the hell does that mean?”
Danny only gave the boy a sly smile almost smirk, “Why don’t you ask your best friend?”
Scott huffed, “We just asked if you had heard from him.”
Danny only shook his head at the boy and turned back to face the boy, “Not who I meant man.”
***
Reggie always wondered how other people saw him until they started to tell him then he would have rather stay wondering in most cases. They branded him with terms like annoying, useless, and weak. Weird he could wear with honor, but the others not so much.
It’s an old memory now that should have begun to gather dust, but it’s still as fresh as the day the words were spoken. Reggie remembered right after his mother had passed making a supper of burned chicken for his father, perhaps the first meal he had ever tried to prepare, him a young boy chattering along to fill the silence that had been left in his mother absence and his father telling him he was annoying with all that racket that came out of his mouth and couldn’t he just shut up. And while Reggie isn’t one to take things to heart, but it beat through his shell and hit him directly in his young bruised and battered heart. That day become the day he knew he could no longer trust his father to be there for him. The day he built walls that were thicker and taller than a boy his age should ever have to build. Ones to keep monsters out, but the only monster left was the hollow form of his father.
Now Reggie had the honor of meeting and being considered the son of Ray. Ray was everything Reggie’s own father wasn’t. Ray was kind, considered, accepting, and most importantly: he was present for his kids. He wanted to know what was going on in their lives and when Sunset Curve added Julie to their ranks, when their friend Bobby died, and when Reggie cried forgotten on his birthday (other than the boys of course) well Ray was more than willing to adopt the three boys that were ghosts of their former selves and Reggie loved him for it.
Time had passed since Reggie had left and he was running out of clothes now at the point of having to resort to stealing his boyfriends’, today he was in jeans that were clearly Luke’s and a shirt that clearly Alex’s. While it wasn’t exactly his finest look, Reggie was honestly just happy to have two great boyfriends that he could steal clothes from as well as others who so clearly cared about him. Reggie had been staying in the guest room at Ray’s although Ray claimed it was Reggie’s. Luke was finally back home after Ray had talked to Luke’s parents and had Luke promise to get his GED they were letting him pursue music without too much huff and puff. Alex’s was a different story, his parents were strictly anti-gay and lgbtq+ in general so Ray, the magic worker he was, asked his sister in-law to take Alex in. And while the boys had tons of sleep overs it was still nice to each have their own space. For the first time in his life, Reggie was beginning to feel like things were turning around and the puzzle pieces were falling into place. His heart didn’t feel like there was a missing puzzle piece. He just was.
Luke had his head resting on Reggie’s shoulder humming the tune to a new song he was working on when Reggie turned his head to peak at the other boy, “I think I need to head back to Beacon and get the rest of my stuff if I’m staying down here.”
Alex who had been laying across the boys’ laps nodded, “We could go with you if you want?”
Luke snorted, “Yeah and give Noah a piece of my mind while I’m at it.” Alex rolled his eyes and Luke added under his breathe, “Maybe added some tasteful design to his house while we are at it too. Like a giant penis because he’s a huge dick.”
Reggie rolled his eyes but was smiling nonetheless, “I don’t know if all that is necessary, but I would like some back up I guess.”
Alex smiled at the boy with that little smile of his, “Well we better tell Ray we are heading out.”
Whether the universe was intervening, or they all shared some really bad luck, when Reggie came down with the last pile of clothes in his arms, Alex three steps behind him, and Luke probably messing around in his spiny chair upstairs, his father was standing in the living room a group of teens with him. Reggie felt a stab of hurt at his father’s wide smile and his old friends in his old living room. Alex knew Reggie was about to break down and hurried to put a calming shoulder on his boyfriend’s shoulder.
Reggie took a deep breathe before asking out loud, “What the fuck?”
His father faltered taking a step before spinning around to look at his only son, “Stiles?” The teens followed the movement and faced their once friend. The pack had a collection of hurt and confusion laced across their features upon taking in the form of their once friend.
Luke joined his boyfriends on the stairs as the rest of the house was stunned into silence, “Well this is awkward.”
Noah sighed, “I thought someone had broken into the house.”
Reggie was still stunned into silence, but Luke continued anyway, “Well we kind of had too considering you changed the locks?”
Noah gave the boy a look of distrain which sparked something in Reggie, “We are just grabbing the rest of my stuff.” Alex squeezed Reggie’s shoulder and Reggie pasted a fake smile over his hurt.
Scott crossed his arms, “And who are they?”
Reggie snorted as Luke whispered, “I got the spray paint like I said this is some dicky business.”
Alex helpfully slapped his arm whispering back, “So not the time.” The pack shared looks of slight anger having heard the brown haired boy. Scott felt sharp anger flood his system at the disrespect to the man he viewed as his father figure.
Reggie rolled his eyes taking the last few steps to the bottom floor. Scott blocked his path to the door when Reggie continued not to answer, “I said who are they Stiles?”
Luke walked up to the werewolf, “Maybe we should be asking who the fuck you are after all you are the one who is in his fucking house.”
Noah sighed heavily, “I see you still need your mouth washed out with soap, Lucas.”
Luke smiled sarcastically with his arms crossed over his chest, “I would say it’s a product of bad parenting, but the only bad parent here is you so.”
Scott yelled out a hey as the rest of the pack watched the Sheriff chuckle in a dark manner, “I’m not the parent that had to file a missing person, now am I?” His eyes flickered over to Alex, “Or whose parents who kicked him out because he is a damn queer?”
Hurt reflected on Alex’s face and Reggie looked at his shoes in embarrassment, but Luke was just even more pissed, “You’re right. You are worse. See instead of filing a missing person you let your son move out to live somewhere you have no idea of then changed the locks so he couldn’t even get his stuff. You drove his so called friends away from him because clearly, they are so far up your ass, they think the sun shines from there. And maybe you didn’t kick him out, but you refused to acknowledge your own son’s queerness instead passive aggressively bullying him into hiding. So, you know what Noah as politely as I can let me say from the deepest part of myself fuck you.”
Lydia was pale and stuttered, “What?”
Alex looked up at his boyfriends, “Come on guys lets just get out of here and back to Ray’s. He’s not worth it.”
Noah pulled his sharp gaze on Alex bitter words on his tongue when interrupted by Reggie looked up, “Just let me get my shit and we will never even step foot in Beacon Hills again.”
Noah shook his head, “No. You’re my son damnit and you’re going to stay put.”
Liam looked to Scott confusion laced him his features and Lydia refused to even look at the man she had even come to view as her own. Malia looked out the window uninterested, but it was Scott who was red in the face and spurted, “Come on Stiles. You can’t be serious this is your dad and you’re going to let some guys talk to him like that? And just leave like that?”
Reggie snorted out a distorted laugh, “My name is Reggie, and he isn’t my dad. At least he hasn’t acted like it for a long time. What do I have left here? A dad who is never there and when he is, he hates me? Friends who don’t give a fuck about me. Yeah right. All I want is my clothes and a few other things. Is that really so much to ask?”
Scott growled and eyes flickered red, “Don’t talk about him like that.”
Reggie rolled his eyes as his boys formed a pack behind him Alex once more putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, “Look I know you got daddy issues a mile wide Scott, but you don’t scare me. I’m done I got a different family now, one who cares.”
Reggie grabbed the last load of his clothes tightly in his arms and with his head held high walked out. Scott looked after him as his eyes began to flicker from red to a pale blue. Then just as Reggie reached the last step turned back, “Oh and they don’t have to fuck with my memories to make me do what they want.”
Reggie didn’t need the pack, nor did he need the memories of the supernatural. He had his boys and a family. Ray who when the boys waked through the door and Reggie exploded into tears held him tight and whispered softly to him in Spanish. Julie who had a tube of ice cream and movies on que for the boys when they settled in for the night. Carlos who asked Reggie if he wanted him to give up ghost hunting after learning his new brother’s involvement in it and then asked if Reggie would join him when Reggie said he didn’t mind. Or even Flynn who managed to block the pack from ever coming to one of their shows. Of course, Alex and Luke held him every time the hurt got a little too much and let him work through things the way he needed too while supporting him.
With the band let’s just say they ended up just fine. They after all were on the edge of great and lets just says great didn’t even begin to apply to their careers by the end of it. It was just the tip of an iceberg. Winning a few Grammy’s, being one of the first bands being vocal for poly and other LGBTQ+ rights and taking the world by storm.
Oh, and maybe the Sheriff’s house gained some new décor a few weeks later in the spray painting of a massive male genital.