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Stiles hadn’t realized it was a thing until one night Liam had pointed it out. It was Friday night and everyone from the McCall pack was in Stiles’ living room watching some random movie Kira had brought.
“Are you guys a thing?” The young beta asked, pointing at Scott and Stiles’ intertwined fingers, placed on the couch between them. Stiles almost got whiplash from the speed he turned his head to Liam.
“No.” Scott said flatly, not even bothering to look away from the TV.
Of course they weren’t a thing. If they were, they’d talked about it and they’d most definitely be having sex with each other, which they’d never done, obviously. Not that Stiles had ever thought about Scott in that way. Okay, maybe a couple of times.
“Oh, cus you guys hold hands a lot.” Liam said, looking back to the TV.
“No, we don’t.” Stiles said, because he’d never actually noticed they do it in the first place. Lydia gave a loud laugh and Stiles swore that he came so close to hating her in that moment.
That should have been the end of things really. But Stiles wasn’t exactly capable of letting something go easy.
“Dude?” Stiles whispered to his best friend. They were in chemistry class so they couldn’t really make much noise, unless they wanted Harris to humiliate them.
“Yeah?” Scott asked.
Stiles didn’t say anything just squeezed Scott’s hand tighter. Realization flooded Scott’s eyes. “What are we doing?” Stiles whispered.
“Holding hands.” Scott answered and Stiles wanted to smack him for that. Stiles knew they were holding hands. He could feel the heat of Scott’s smaller hand radiate into his. He could feel his belly turning into knots whenever Scott would caress the back of his hand.
“Yeah, but since when?” Stiles asked. He really couldn’t remember when it had started.
“I don’t know.” Scott answered. “Do you wanna stop?” Stiles shook his head. He didn’t want to stop, ever. Scott’s hand was made for his to hold. He loved it, but he’d never noticed it before.
***
Stiles’ jeep was busted, what else was new. He had to walk to school. Thank god Scott was a great friend and decided to walk with him. He had left his bike at home, doing his morning run to Stiles’ house.
They were walking down the street when Stiles consciously decided to take Scott’s hand in his. Scott didn’t even flinch, intertwining their fingers together.
“That’s nice.” Stiles said. He didn’t want to make it awkward, but they were holding hands, and he’d never really realized it before. Sure, when Liam had pointed it out, Stiles remembered all the recent times they’d held hands, but he still couldn’t figure out when it had started.
“Yeah.” Scott said, looking down at his feet.
“Had you noticed we do it?” Stiles asked. He knew talking about it would make it weird, but he couldn’t stop his mouth. The werewolf only nodded.
“We used to do it when we were kids.” Scott said. And sure, Stiles remembered that their teacher in kindergarten would always make the kids hold hands, but that still didn’t explain it. “And I think we started doing it again at Allison’s funeral.”
Oh, Stiles didn’t really remember the funeral. He had blocked it out of his mind. He was guilty about it, no matter how many times Scott would try to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault.
“Does it mean anything to you?” Stiles asked. It was clear that that time Scott was the one who’d figured thing out before Stiles had.
“I like doing it.” Scott said. It wasn’t the answer Stiles was looking for, but at least it wasn’t something negative.
“I like doing it too.” Stiles answered. They didn’t have to say it out loud in order to understand each other.
That was a promise. A promise that after they both shook off the events of the Nogitsune there would be something more between them.