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Scott's eyes meet his from across the hallway. Scott's face becomes a confused frown and Stiles turns his eyes away. It happens again at recess, and in music class. He comes into being the second Scott's eyes meet his over a slightly sticky lunchroom table.
"Why do you keep looking at me?" he asks the boy. Scott shrugs.
"Because you look sad." He says, jamming half a sandwich in his face. Stiles decides, maybe he can exist for a little while, for this boy.
**
He attaches himself to a family. They seem nice, a woman with soft brown hair and softer brown eyes. A man with too much of the world on his shoulders. They have a home, not just a house, and Stiles would stay with Scott, but sometimes, Scott says, his mother is too sad to even see him, let alone someone new.
Stiles learns it's because Scott's father is gone, though not in the way Stiles can be gone. And Melissa is sad because of it. Stiles can't help that, but he can help Scott be not lonely.
He meets Jackson in the same Kindergarten as he and Scott, and Danny. Both seem to be dealing with their own issues, and Stiles isn't there for them. He clings to Scott, they age together, in as much as Stiles ages. He allows his body to grow, shaped himself after the ones he's called mother and father.
He meets many people in the town. Including the doctors at the hospital.
At first, his mother tells him to stay home and be good, she just needs to go out for a little while. He tells her he's old enough to stay home alone, even though in the eyes of the law, he's not. He's 8 when she begins to take him with her on her outings. They head to the hospital, not a floor he's familiar with, having been to the hospital with Scott many times before. They meet with several doctors, all of whom take on a soothing pseudo calm around him and his mother.
His mother takes him into one of her therapy sessions, and Stiles learns that she knows he's not real. And it's driving her insane.
He never meant for this to happen. When he... hadn't existed, before Scott caught his eye and pulled him in, he'd been alone. Lonely wasn't a sensation he felt, but now, with a manifestation of self, it was an emotion he knew.
He doesn't mean to hurt the woman he's called Mother. Something about her is changed, different from the one he calls Father. Different, even, than Scott, who knew he hadn't existed until suddenly he didn't remember. Stiles learns about things like ADHD and mental illness. He learns that his Mother has both, though he's not prepared when the latter becomes an issue for the Family he's joined.
He finds his mother's note on the kitchen table, all apologies to Noah and even to Stiles, though she never calls him her son. The note says that even though he wasn't real, she'd loved him with all her heart, until it stopped working.
Stiles' heart is broken. He thinks about becoming not again, thinks about disappearing into the non-existence he'd had before. Floating in between the worlds and returning to his emotionless state. He doesn't think his father would survive his wife's death, and if he wasn't anything anymore, he wouldn't feel the pain in that, but being comes with all the emotions of humanity, and he can't leave the man who raised him like that.
They move from the house his mother claimed as resting place. Stiles stays in the same school, but the students treat him differently now. They all see him, all know him. They all reach out with their eyes to see the sad boy now, when before it had just been Scott and Stiles.
He exists for many years, growing with Scott, who seems to be finding himself in the school, gaining friends and even falling in love. Stiles is also growing with his father's expectations. His father is the Sheriff of the town, something that brings him great pride and pleasure. He's sad over the death of Stiles' mother. He'd probably survive if Stiles were to become not real again. Scott would survive.
Stiles can't quite bring himself to un-exist. He feels like he'd miss everything, even with the void of emotions and feelings he'd have while not being. So instead, he continues to exist, continues to help his father live, help Scott thrive, help his people do normal people things.
It goes fine, he exists, he lives, he stands beside Scott in the lunch line and watches Scott make moon eyes at a pretty girl across the hall. He begins to...want. Which is odd. It's one thing to exist in the world. Exist for the friendship Scott had pulled him into. Now that Scott's got other interests, Stiles begins to... fade.
Stiles is at peace with this. Scott pulled him into existence through loneliness and kindness. He is here for Scott, but if Scott no longer needs him...
They meet Derek and Stiles feels something more odd than usual. He finds there are many different kinds of needs.