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One of these days, Stiles would learn not to pick up random objects. Today was not that day, though. Especially since the consequences of his latest grab-and-inspect move wouldn’t become apparent until several days later.
For now, though, he saw a fist-sized iridescent stone with an intricate pattern carved onto its surface on a dusty shelf in the vault and reached for it to take a closer look. He was yanked away from the shelf by a glowering Peter before he’d managed more than brushing the stone with his fingertips—which was why he missed the fine tendrils of glowing light that connected his fingers with the stone for a second while Peter was still touching him.
And even if he had, he’d have forgotten all about it when Peter glared at him and said: “I told you not to touch anything! That includes pretty-looking stones that not even my ancestors knew how to use.”
“Why does it sit out in the open like this, then?”
The question seemed to stump Peter, and Stiles took it as a win. Peter was probably worried over nothing anyway. It’s not like anything had happened…
~
They had left the vault with the old book they’d come to get, and Stiles had practically devoured all the chapters on protective wards—both portable and stationary—more than once, to be thorough. Then he’d moved on to the practical part, learning to draw runes and sigils as precisely as possible.
For the next step—actually pouring magic into the runes and sigils—Peter insisted on being present. Stiles wasn’t exactly sure why. The wards he was focusing on right now were protective in nature. What damage could he do with those?
Peter’s raised eyebrow in response to his mutterings was kinda insulting. Stiles would show him!
~
The first few runes he activated lit up beautifully and did exactly what they were supposed to be doing. Stiles smiled smugly at Peter. But since he wasn’t a complete asshole, he’d give Peter the newest talisman he was working on. It would be a ward against fire.
Hearing Peter’s breath catch when he realized what Stiles was doing was a reward in and of itself.
~
Stiles only began to suspect he had a problem when he moved on to the more complex sigils. Those he had to combine to achieve the desired effect.
“Isn’t this still a little too advanced for you?”
“How so? This is a tiny hut in the woods, and I’m only trying to ward it against weather extremes and ill intent. That’s two things. Doesn’t sound too difficult to me.”
“It’s not just two things. The sigils need to be precise. And while there is a simple way to build wards that keep out ill intent, you’ll need to be specific about which weather extremes you mean.”
“That seems short-sighted, considering how many there are.”
“It’s only sensible. You need a lot of power to fuel weather wards. And no location needs protection against all bad weather. Or do you think that desert tribes need to worry about blizzards? Or that we need to worry about sandstorms here in the preserve?”
“Huh…”
Stiles could see Peter’s point. But that wouldn’t stop him from trying to make sure this hut was as protected as possible. He’d feel so much better if he knew his favorite wolves had a safe place to go to if circumstances kept them away from home.
With this thought firmly in his mind, he went to his knees and drew the first rune. The chalk looked pretty on the dark wooden floor. The whole sigil, once finished, would be impressive, and he couldn’t wait to see it.
As Stiles kept on drawing, Peter’s occasional thoughtful humming became white noise to him. He was in the zone and extremely happy with how well things were going.
Everything went well for a few more minutes. But then… Then there was a flash of glimmering white light—
~
“Isn’t this still a little too advanced for you?”
“You’ve asked that question before.”
“I have n—” Peter paused, and his expression went from indignant to confused in under a second. “I… have. What’s going on?”
That was an excellent question. Because as Stiles looked down to go back to working on the sigil, it was gone. The piece of chalk in his hand was as pristine as it had been when he’d first taken it out of the box. He was also standing—when he could have sworn he hadn’t changed his position on the floor since he’d started drawing. How odd.
If Peter hadn’t confirmed Stiles’ claim, he’d have started thinking his mind had jumped ahead and made him imagine what it would be like to create the sigil. He stared at Peter, hoping the man would be less clueless than he was…
He blinked after a while, realizing he’d become lost in Peter’s eyes. Had they always been this pretty?
… Anyway, time to get started.
As he kneeled down, he missed Peter’s puzzled frown. And if he got a feeling of déjà-vu as he admired his first rune, he didn’t let that distract him from his task. At least not until there was a flash of glimmering white light—
~
This time, Peter interrupted himself before he could start asking his question. Stiles was sure he’d just seen him take a breath, only to deflate and look around himself in confusion.
Huh… So, they’d definitely done this before. Last time, he’d been made to forget that something odd had happened, but this time? This time he was sure it hadn’t just been his imagination.
“What have you done?”
Peter sounded vaguely accusing and sent Stiles into defensive mode faster than he could say it wasn’t me.
“Why do you think it’s something I have done?”
“You’re the one drawing magical symbols on the floor. You tell me.”
“The runes I was working on were for waterproofing. Even if I made a mistake, it shouldn’t have undone my progress.”
“Even if you made…” Peter started to repeat, trailing off to stare out of the hut’s tiny window. Then his head whipped around so he could pin Stiles in place with his glare. “That’s probably exactly what happened!”
“What do you mean?”
“You probably did make a mistake. And now you have to start over.”
“That’s not part of the warding process. Nothing in the book indicates that you have to start over until you get things right.”
“I don’t think it’s the warding process. Do you remember what the flash of light looked like before we ended up back here?”
“Kinda glittery, I’d say… Wait, no… Iridescent, maybe. Mostly white, but with a colorful shimmer to it…”
“And where have we seen that before?”
Huh? Had they seen it before? Peter seemed to think so, the way he kept staring at him, almost as if he wanted to say I told you so. And then the penny dropped.
“Oh! Uh… Sorry? How was I supposed to know this would happen?”
“You couldn’t have known,” Peter agreed. “Which is why you shouldn’t just touch anything that looks interesting!”
“Yeah, well… That’s one lesson learned, I guess.”
“I believe that when I see it.”
“Thank you so much for your vote of confidence! Now, what do we do? Do you think we could leave and forget I’ve ever tried to ward the hut? If I don’t do it wrong, I won’t be forced to start over, will I?”
~
As it turned out, he did have to start over because the moment he had stepped outside of the hut, he was right back inside, the piece of chalk in his hand, and Peter scowling at him from across the room.
Awesome!
Peter obviously wasn’t happy, and there was nothing Stiles could do but try his best and hope they wouldn’t have to do this forever.
As it was, though, he expected to see the flash of light several more times.
Even when Peter decided to help him—looking up the botched runes for him to see where he’d gone wrong, even sometimes drawing a rune himself if he thought Stiles was about to make another mistake—there were bound to be missteps here and there. Because apparently, the sigil didn’t just need to be adequate, it needed to be perfect for some reason. Stiles didn’t know why. Adequate would be enough for it to work, after all. The book said so. Perfect wasn’t really needed.
As he saw the flash of light yet again, he resigned himself to his fate.
~
“Hey, look! We don’t have to start from scratch this time! The first quarter of the sigil is still here!”
“Congratulations.”
“No need to sound so sarcastic about it.”
“I feel like I’m allowed because you had about two thirds of the thing already drawn.”
“I wonder why it always erases so much if it stops me the moment I make a mistake.”
“Might be the way the runes interact with each other. I’ll see if the book has anything to say about it.”
“You do that. And I’ll try a different placement of the latest rune cluster.”
~
“Oh, come on! I didn’t do anything wrong this time! Why are we back again?”
“Because you probably did something wrong.”
“Go ahead then, do it better!”
“Maybe I should. Give me the chalk!”
~
“You can not imagine how validated I feel right now!”
“It makes no sense! We shouldn’t have failed this time.”
“Because you’re so infallible?”
“Often enough. But no. This part should be easy. The first part of the sigil was far more complicated.”
“Awww, don’t pout. We’ll get it right. Eventually.”
~
“Wow! We haven’t gotten this far before, have we?”
“I don’t think so… Careful now. We might have a chance this time.”
“You be careful, too!”
“That’s a given.”
~
“I’m starting to think someone’s trolling us.”
“Who have you pissed off recently?”
“Who have I pissed off? Seriously, Peter? It feels like I should be asking you that.”
“Only Scott, as far as I know. And this is way above his pay grade.”
“You mispronounced ‘he’s morally above it’.”
“Same difference. Now help me with this.”
~
“Will you finally admit that this part can’t be perfected with a steady hand and logical thinking?”
“Are you implying that we should try doing something illogical? Something insane, maybe?”
“You’re the resident expert on insanity. You tell me.”
“Once we’re out of here, I’m going to kill you.”
“Awww, you’d miss me in under a day.”
~
“I don’t know why this rune placement got accepted when I thought it makes more sense over here, but I’m not questioning the stone’s wisdom.”
“Less talking, more drawing!”
“Yeah, yeah. You see how the sigil is now more than three quarters done? Can’t be much longer now until we’re free.”
“Don’t jinx it!”
~
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Why are we back down to a third?”
“Because you jinxed it!”
~
“Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god! Only one rune left. If this fails, I’m going to scream.”
“Then concentrate, keep your hand steady, and draw it correctly at the first attempt.”
“No pressure, then. Thank you.”
~
Stiles let out a shaky breath. He’d only had to redraw the final rune—and only the final rune—twice. In fact, the more repetitions he’d had, the less he’d had to redraw because apparently, he’d gotten quite good at this subject.
And now the sigil was finished. The only thing left to do was to activate it. His heart was speeding right now because he was aware of how much was riding on this. If he made a mistake now…
But no, there was no room for doubt now. Especially not when Peter was looking at him with bated breath, excitement in his eyes. This was it. This was their ticket out of the time loop, and it would create a safe haven for his wolves. Two things that mattered a whole lot to him.
So he put his hands on both sides of the sigil, carefully poured magic into it, and watched it slowly light up. The moment the rune in the center started to glow, Stiles felt the ward spread out and settle all around them.
He got up on shaky legs—Peter appearing at his side instantly to keep him from toppling over. In his elation, Stiles did something utterly reckless: He leaned forward and kissed Peter.
It was… yeah, wow!… remarkable because Peter actually reciprocated. Considering the ordeal they’d just been through, any number of less favorable reactions wouldn’t have surprised him.
When they finally parted, Peter looked as stunned as Stiles felt. And pleased. And… was that exasperation that was sneaking its way onto Peter’s face?
“Will you accept now that it’s a bad idea to touch everything that fascinates you?”
There Peter went, ruining their moment, and promptly triggering Stiles’ sass.
“Hmmm, I don’t know. In this case, it made me a pro at sigil drawing. You’ve got to admit that this ward is a thing of beauty.”
“But at what cost?”
“Your nerves, mostly.”
“Like you were the epitome of composure.”
“Maybe not, but don’t you agree the pros outweigh the cons here? I did get to master a magical discipline, and it would have taken much longer if we’d had to worry about everyday problems interfering.”
“How long do you think we’ve spent on this, though? It’s got to be days. And we didn’t eat or drink or sleep during that time. Just because the outside world got paused doesn’t mean that time didn’t pass for us. I’m sure we’ll be crashing soon.”
“Still worth it, in my books… Would you let me use the stone again?”
“Hell, no! Next time you’re in the vault, the thing will be out of your reach.”
“Spoilsport!”
“That’s not as much of an insult as you think it is. Now let’s get you home, fed, and into bed.”
“You’re moving fast, Mister Hale,” Stiles grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Peter.
“To sleep! For now. Because you’ll need it.”
“And what about you?”
“I’ll probably crash the moment I know you’re safely stashed away.”
“You make it sound like I’m a hazardous object myself,” Stiles pouted but perked up when a thought entered his mind. “Means you’ll have to supervise me, doesn’t it? Make sure I don’t get up to mischief even in my sleep?”
“Is that your not-so-subtle way of asking me over?”
“Is it working?”
~
It had been working because they were sitting in Stiles’ kitchen half an hour later, eating hastily-made sandwiches while trying not to fall asleep before they’d even made it to the bedroom.
And while everything in Stiles was begging to just shut down for maintenance, his mind was still working overtime.
Because there had to be a way to get his hands on the stone again…