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Here’s the thing about Allison - Allison seems awesome. Stiles is sure he would get along with her great if only he had a chance to interact with her without Scott around.
But Allison and Scott are a package deal, effectively rendering any effort of Stiles making a new friend futile and leaving him short one best friend. Which is... fine. It’s fine. But when Stiles enters the cafeteria and sees Scott and Allison giggling and whispering together like school girls...
He grabs his food and doesn’t even try to head in the direction of their table.
„Is it okay if I sit here?”
Boyd gives him a long and appraising look but eventually nods.
„Scott and Allison are being kind of disgusting. I heard about honeymoon phase but it gets tiring, talking into air. And I kind of struggle staying quiet. But also like, don’t feel obligated to talk back, or listen to me. But I figured it’s nicer not to sit alone.”
He promptly realizes he put his foot in his mouth and decides actually, he may as well swallow it.
„Why do you always sit alone anyway?”
Actually, it’s not even that rude of a question. Well, it’s rude, but Boyd is not a complete persona non grata. He’s not some bullied kid no one likes. He’s quiet and goes unnoticed but Stiles is pretty sure no one would mind if he sat with them.
Boyd just raises an eyebrow at him, like the question was stupid and the answer obvious. Which, maybe it was. It probably was. The answer is kind of not as obvious as Boyd probably assumed though. Stiles can’t be sure. He can guess though. He can even guess outloud, and present it as fact, and then he sounds more confident than he is in his answers.
„Fair.” He nods, starting to eat. „Approaching people is not exactly easy. I’d hesitate before I just sat down with someone random too. You never know what they really think even if they tell you to go ahead and people tend to find me annoying. ” Fuck. „You aren’t random though, I mean, we know each other, I guess I’m a bit of an ass to have never sat with you before. School politics seem complicated, and I always followed Scott around. Except I kind of don’t want to anymore.”
Boyd doesn’t nod or acknowledge his rant but there’s a small half smile hiding behind his apple so Stiles thinks maybe Boyd doesn’t find him that annoying.
„Anyway, so do you mind if I actually sit here sometimes?”
„It’s fine.” Boyd actually answers, and Stiles grins.
He sits down with Boyd the next day, and Scott and Allison again, the day after, just to not make Scott think he abandoned him or something and because he is still trying to sort of get to know Allison in the three second intervals between her making out with Scott.
But he sits with Boyd more regularly, and he finds himself actually liking it and seeking Boyd out when they have the same classes too. He was always sort of aware of Boyd’s presence and talked to him a couple times when he wanted something, but never got to him.
And honestly? Stiles still doesn’t know much about Boyd. Like damn, the guy knows how to keep his cards close to his chest. But he knows more than before, and Boyd seems to tolerate if not actually enjoy his rambling, and feels like he’s listening even when he rarely answers.
Stiles likes Boyd. Maybe approaching people can be easy and he should do it more instead of just hanging out with Scott. I mean, Scott’s a pretty great example himself that sometimes it’s worth it to get to know new people.
***
It’s not that Stiles is the unpopular kid. It’s more that Stiles used to be the unpopular kid and Scott did too and then they stuck to each other and just never considered rechecking their social status. And they’re no longer the immigrant kids in kindergarten talking kinda weird, and they’re both on the lacrosse team and it’s not like either of them gets bullied or anything. But they just.... always stuck together. And Stiles got comfortable with it.
Boyd is the beginning. They never become besties and Boyd is quiet, so they don’t talk as much, but Stiles is... Stiles is not quiet, and it works. Boyd listens when Stiles needs to talk and even years later, after Stiles’ social circle becomes a hot air balloon that’s big and prone to explode, he’ll think back to the fact Boyd was always a quiet presence around since the beginning. That Boyd was who Stiles went to when he needed someone not to talk and offer pointless platitudes.
***
So sometimes Stiles sits with Boyd now. Sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes, Boyd sits with Erica - or well, more Erica sits with Boyd, and then Stiles safely retreats to Scott and Allison, because it’s not that he’s afraid of Erica it’s just... Yeah, he’s kinda afraid of Erica.
He knows it’s kind of unfair.
Life is hard enough being an epileptic without people treating it like leprosy, but Stiles is just a kid (when it suits him) and he finds Erica’s seizures absolutely terrifying and he feels like being her friend would make him sort of responsible for her (because he’s totally an adult - when it suits him) and he doesn’t want that. And if that’s selfish and wrong reasons to avoid someone that’s okay because he’s not voicing them and he’s got no obligation to be anyone’s friend anyway.
Also Erica looks at him weirdly intensely.
She’s scary.
So yeah, maybe Stiles just keeps his distance just in case. He wasn’t lying when he told Boyd making connections is a process. It takes time.
Other times, that time is not given to you.
Erica’s seizures look terrifying, and Stiles can’t imagine what it’s like to have to carry a pillow with you to class in case you need to lay down on the floor and lose control over your own body, to have to skip PE more often than not, to never know what’s coming. They are terrifying to watch from afar.
They are hell of a lot more terrifying up close, when Erica is actually in PE class for once.
When she’s climbing the wall, possibly the worst kind of exercise to be doing as an epileptic.
And then she’s falling down from the wall right in front of Stiles.
When people ask him later, and they will - first Scott, then Allison, Jackson, although he’ll phrase it more like an insult than a compliment, Danny and even Lydia and about a dozen other random classmates, he will not be able to explain how it happened.
He just saw Erica fall, and he was close enough, and no, he didn’t know if he’ll be able to catch her, let alone hold her.
But he did.
He cradles her head in his lap as she shakes and if he thought the seizures were terrifying from afar, this is the scariest thing Stiles has ever experienced, because sitting in the hospital slowly watching his mom die was scary but it was long and slow and excruciating but this? This is an overwhelming momentary terror.
Stiles doesn’t want to experience something like this ever again.
But as he walks Erica down deserted hallways to the nurse office, he thinks he’d rather experience this daily than have Erica go through it on her own. Approaching people is scary and difficult, and it may just be worth it.
„Thank you.” Erica says later, once she’s out of the office and in the clear and explicitly forbidden from future exercise that puts her at risk if she has a seizure. Stiles even wisely stays quiet about the fact it’s just about every exercise. He’d ignore this sort of advice just like her, he knows. He doesn’t move though. He’s not sure why, but he doesn’t want to leave, like he’s waiting for her permission, or for her to say something - anything, or maybe he just wants to stay close to her, for his own peace of mind.
„I... That was nice. What you did.”
„I mean, I couldn’t just let you fall to your death, right?” He laughs, but it’s forced and awkward.
„No, I mean... You should have gone back to class. You didn’t have to wait.”
Sure but why would he willingly go to class with Harris when he has a legitimate reason to skip it? That’s not what Stiles says though. That’s not the whole truth.
„I wanted to stay. Just to make sure you’re okay.”
„I’m okay.” She says, and she smiles, a simple but genuine smile on her face. Stiles realizes Erica doesn’t smile much, but it suits her. She stands in silence for another while, but he can tell she’s building up to saying something. „Um, actually... would you like to... go out, after school sometimes? Just so I can thank you, you know.” She adds that last part as insurance, he can tell. To make rejection easier on them both.
But Stiles knows what she means and well...
„Like a date?” He asks, tone light and clearly not opposed.
„If you want.”
„Sure.” He says, his smile blinding, and hers mirroring it, and he thinks she really should smile more.
The date is a disaster.
Well, it’s fun, really, but they try to kiss and chicken out at the last minute and get kicked out of the cinema and at the end, decide they’re better off as friends. So maybe it’s not actually a disaster, because Erica is pretty awesome, and now Stiles doesn’t have to avoid Boyd when she’s around. Which she is, more and more often. He has a feeling she probably wouldn’t have the same issues kissing Boyd as she did with him.
But it’s nice.
All in all, Stiles thinks getting a friend may be an even better perk of a bout of heroism than getting a girl. It’s a solid month after they start hanging out though, when Stiles is driving Erica home because they live in the same direction, that Erica admits to him she crushed on him for years before the ill timed seizure gave her the push to ask him out.
And it hits Stiles.
„Wait!” He screams, the realization hitting him like a truck and it’s good the road is empty so he can’t hit anything. „That’s why you always looked at me weirdly! You had a crush on me! I thought you were glaring at me!”
Erica laughs. It really suits her.
***
Lydia and Jackson often sit alone - not in the way most people sit alone because they have no one to sit with, but in the untouchable couple kind of way. Sometimes, these days, Allison sits with them, because she’s made friends with Lydia. That’s usually the only times when Stiles gets to sit with Scott anymore, except for when he doesn’t sometimes, because he already sat with Boyd and Erica. He’s not sure where Scott sits then, he sometimes just disappears, honestly. He doesn’t admit even to himself that he doesn’t always look to check.
Sometimes Danny sits with them too. Sometimes it’s both Danny and Allison. But sometimes it’s just Jackson and Lydia, because everyone is kind of scared to sit with them.
Except Stiles, apparently.
But it’s because it’s just Jackson and Lydia that he dares put his tray down opposite them. Lydia doesn’t even notice him at first. Jackson doesn’t even glare - he seems less angry and more baffled. Which is valid. Stiles isn’t really enemies with them. Jackson is kind of an asshole, and sometimes a bully, but he doesn’t really bully Stiles. It’s not like they don’t know each other - they have some classes together, and Stiles has talked to Jackson before, even if it was mostly about homework or back in kindergarten.
And Lydia... Stiles bothered Lydia more than he should have and she was more gracious about it than it warranted. That’s the whole reason he’s here.
„Stiles.” She eventually says, when she notices him, or maybe when she can’t ignore him any longer, and it’s like the word itself is a sigh, and wow, okay, he’s been an asshole.
„Look, I’m not gonna bother you, I just wanted to...” Okay, this is scarier than asking someone on a date. But Stiles isn’t a coward. „I wanted to apologize.”
Lydia’s brow furrows, so Stiles doesn’t let her get a word in and explains himself.
„I had some realizations lately. Way too late, too, but I’ve realized I’ve been an asshole. And pretty much a stalker, and you don’t deserve it, and I know better than to not realize no means no and you already got Jackson. So I wanted to apologize for being a clown with a crush, because I can’t imagine it made you anything but uncomfortable, and promise I’ll stop.”
Lydia stares at him with her mouth open. Jackson looks slightly confused but almost... relieved? Which makes absolutely no sense because Jackson couldn’t have possibly seen him as a legitimate threat.
The silence is uncomfortable and long and awkward and Stiles wants to run but he won’t leave until Lydia actually says something so he picks at a sad french fry and waits.
„I... Wait, does that mean you don’t have a crush on me anymore?”
Oh God, no. Not like that.
„I mean, no. Yes, no, I mean, not like that! I mean no I don’t wanna date you anymore, but I agree you are still the prettiest, smartest and most badass girl in school.”
Murder leaves Lydia’s eyes so it must have been the right thing to say.
„As long as we’re clear on that.” She huffs, and he thinks maybe that’s her version of accepting the apology, or maybe he really never registered on her radar at all, or she’s actually human and this is her way of leaving the uncomfortable situation.
Stiles figures it’s his time to go, and somehow he nervously ate all the pathetic french fries, so he’s about to get up, but it feels strange to just leave like that so he turns to Jackson to, god save him, make small talk.
„Okay, gotta go. Um, see you at lacrosse practice after class?”
Jackson frowns.
„There isn’t lacrosse practice today.”
„There is, since Greenberg pissed Coach off at econ this morning.”
Jackson is the one who looks kinda murderous now so Stiles makes himself scarce.
The practice is about as pleasant as it usually is when Greenberg is involved in scheduling, so they end up going through three hours of hell and running laps after. When they’re done they just collapse on the ground to catch their breath and somehow, Jackson lands near Stiles, both of them panting hard. Jackson turns to him, looking annoyed but not too serious. It’s hard to take someone seriously when they look half dead anyway.
„I wish you hadn’t told me about this so I had an excuse not to show up.”
Stiles laughs but it’s kinda pained.
„Dude. I know. I’m sorry.”
They lay there longer than they should, as everyone around them gets up and evening dew soaks through their clothes. It’s fine. This way, at least the showers are free once they get up. They change in companionable silence that feels new with Jackson and Stiles’ mind is running full speed trying to figure out if he really possibly could have been jealous of Lydia. Or maybe just possessive? Whatever it was, this new peace is nice. Jackson’s a douche, but he’s kinda cool and the captain and Stiles figures not having him growl at him will be good.
When they leave Jackson’s Porsche is the last car left in the parking lot.
„Where’s your heap of trash?”
„Oi!” Stiles turns to him, hurt and pissed and yeah, fine, Roscoe is at the mechanics but she’s a fine car even if she’s in a rusty shape. She’s a classic. „Don’t call her that.” And then he adds, not sure why. „She was my mom’s.”
It shuts Jackson up. Stiles knows Jackson’s adopted, so he gets it. He’s not supposed to know, but Sheriff dad and all. Noah Stilinski doesn’t believe in locking his drawers, lord knows why. And Stiles played with Jackson plenty when they were in kindergarten and things were simpler and they weren’t and Jackson spent more than one afternoon at the station while their dads talked.
„Well.” Jackson says when Stiles starts walking away. He’s got his doors open but he’s just leaning against it, not moving to leave. „Get in.”
Stiles doesn’t question it. He jumps into the car.
The Porsche is a beautiful machine. Stiles doesn’t mention how his house isn’t even in the same direction as Jackson’s. Jackson doesn’t murder him for tapping his fingers in a nervous tick.
„It was kinda cool. What you said to Lydia.” Stiles doesn’t expect it.
„It was kinda uncool how I acted before.”
„Still.” Is all that Jackson answers and that’s that. But it feels good, and it assures Stiles he didn’t make an idiot of himself.
Jackson actually drops him off at home, despite the fact there are like three bus stops he could have left Stiles at and saved himself the trip. It feels good.
He points out to Stiles how to improve his form casually at next practice, and there is no more growling. Stiles even sits down with Lydia and Jackson and Danny once when he and Danny are doing a science project together and there’s a normal pleasant conversation, including Lydia being the helpful genius she is, and Jackson asking questions Stiles answers without making fun of him.
It’s less than six weeks later that Jackson actually offers to help him with practice and stays after school for two hours playing lacrosse.
It’s not like it’s an emotional talk about their dead parents or making friendship bracelets, but holy shit.
Stiles thinks he and Jackson Whittemore may be friends.
***
Stiles and Jackson are definitely friends.
Fucking hell, Stiles and Jackson actually have the emotional talk about dead parents when they’re very drunk on a lacrosse championships trip a state over.
He’s not sure how it happened. He’s not sure why Jackson tells him these things, things that he has a scary suspicion even Danny doesn’t know, but maybe it’s the fact Danny’s so... perfect. Danny is the cool guy. He’s the nice kid everyone likes, he doesn’t have baggage, he’s easy to be around. Maybe Jackson wants to match Danny’s casual perfection, but with Stiles he can be human.
Maybe it’s the fact hanging around Stiles and teaching him to get better at lacrosse fulfils Jackson’s need to be the superior one.
Or maybe it’s the fact that Stiles knows now that Jackson Whittemore puts on a tough front but really, he’s a soft marshmallow inside with like, a crapton of issues that the Porsche won’t solve, no matter how badly he wishes for it.
It’s just another proof for it, when he mentions, faux casually, as they’re dragging their feet together after practice.
„You know Isaac? He lives on my street.”
Stiles grunts affirmatively. He kind of recognizes Isaac, but doesn’t know him much. Or at all. Isaac tends to keep to himself. Kinda... kinda like Boyd used to. And Erica.
„I think he could use a friend.” Jackson says, and Stiles hears: You seem good at making friends.
He tries to sit next to Isaac during lunch the next day, and chats him up during classes, and once even tries to talk to him with Jackson too, during lacrosse.
Isaac, it turns out, doesn’t want a friend.
It feels like a failure.
***
So Scott and Stiles aren’t as attached at the hip these days as they used to be. But they’re still good friends. Best friends. The kind of friends who follow each other through the woods at night because there’s allegedly been a murder.
The kind of friends who end up sharing a secret that werewolves exist together.
Because Scott is one.
Jesus fuck.
He doesn’t sit with anyone other than Scott for a solid month. He can see the kinda hurt looks Boyd and Erica and even Jackson give him, but it’s okay. They got each other, Boyd and Erica. They may even use the privacy. And Jackson has Lydia and Danny, and Allison sits with them because well.
Stiles and Scott. Furry problem.
That’s how he meets - they meet - but really, Stiles meets, mostly, Derek Hale.
Because Derek is a werewolf too.
Of course?
Of course.
It goes something like this: there’s something that attacked and killed Derek Hale’s sister and turned Scott into a werewolf and Stiles helps Scott deal with it. That something, it turns out, is an alpha werewolf itself. Stiles almost gets killed by it, and then he helps Derek google how to deal with it. And then it turns ot that alpha werewolf is Derek’s uncle, and it’s a real fucking mess and Stiles helps Derek deal with -- it’s a bit of a pattern.
And then the story comes a full circle, because Scott has been totally smitten with Allison for months by then and Stiles... Stiles still doesn’t really know her.
But Allison calls him in the middle of the night and she’s practically hyperventilating into the phone and okay. She tells him some... really fucked up things. It’s okay. Helping people deal is what Stiles does, apparently.
„Stiles, your dad is the Sheriff, right? Because my aunt is keeping Derek Hale in our basement, and she’s torturing him, and she says he’s a werewolf, and it makes no sense, but he looked... he like... changed and... I just told her I’m going to the bathroom.”
So Stiles takes a deep breath, and tells her to get the fuck out of there without returning to Kate and go straight to Scott, because Scott will be able to explain and well. He doesn’t need to spend a lot of time convincing Allison to run to Scott.
And then he wakes up his dad, and apologizes, and explains in very vague terms why he needs him to get dressed and come help save Derek because no, dad, he cannot specify why any other officer that is actually on duty right now won’t suffice.
Maybe Derek will stay human when they get him and he won’t have to go into detail ever but if that doesn’t happen, then he can deal with his dad. He can’t deal with a random police officer. He definitely can’t deal with the general public.
Derek doesn’t stay human.
His dad doesn’t even blink. He focuses on getting Derek out, arrests unconscious Kate after knocking her out (with a stun gun - poetic, considering she has Derek plugged into electricity, and god, it’s fucked up and Stiles practically runs to the damn thing to turn it off).
And then Sheriff Noah Stilinski casually berates him for running with the werewolves, but there’s almost no heat in it.
„How the hell did you already know.” Stiles is still reeling, sitting next to Derek (by now human) as they wait for the ambulance to show up.
„I’m the Sheriff.” Is all his dad says, and maybe it is an answer.
And then they kill Peter and Derek becomes the alpha.
(They meaning Derek, but he’s there and Scott is, and fucking Kate is - she shouldn't be but of course she escaped and she is, and his dad and Allison and her dad - because apparently Allison’s whole family are fucking werewolf hunters and her and Scott are very Romeo and Juliet about it.)
So Stiles befriends Boyd and then he befriends Erica, and he befriends Jackson, and well. He doesn’t successfully befriend Isaac, but he tries to stay in his orbit. He orbits around many people thesedays, a change, but not a bad one, but a kind of heliocentric attention only Scott got from him before. It changes everything, and it changes nothing.
Maybe there’s a version of events in which when Derek offered the bite to Boyd and Erica, they would jump on it, because they were lonely, and abandoned, and thought they had no other option.
But in this reality, they have friends, right? They have each other, and Stiles, and they’re good.
Are they?
„It’s about power.” Derek says. „Power to give to the powerless.”
And Stiles kicks Scott out before Scott escalates things unnecessarily and he looks at his friends and he just asks why. And Erica talks, and talks, and explains that the power of friendship can’t beat the idea of not having to live with the fear of dropping down in the middle of the street and not being able to get up some day.
And Stiles... Stiles doesn’t like it. But he gets it.
Boyd just says he has his reasons, and doesn’t elaborate. Stiles doesn’t ask him to.
It’s okay. Or it’s gonna be okay.
Derek seems impressed by how Stiles is handling it all. He offers him the bite too. Stiles declines, but feels kind of honored.
And then there’s Jackson. Of fucking course it’s Jackson. Because Jackson’s issues aren’t the size of his Porsche - no, they’re more like, the size of a monster truck. So Jackson finds out about werewolves, and sees Scott suddenly become cool, and Erica dress in a mini skirt and he asks Derek for a bite.
Stiles actually sits Jackson down, before he lets him do this. He tells Jackson that he will listen to him, even if he’s allergic to emotions. Tells him that he doesn’t need to be a furry, or have a pack, to belong. Jackson nods and he says he knows (although Stiles thinks maybe he really doesn’t, not yet) and he asks Stiles if it’s okay if he wants to do this anyway. And Stiles says that’s okay, because it is.
It’s not. It’s such a fucking terrible idea. Neither Stiles nor Derek are able to say no to him.
(They don’t know yet, that they will regret it. But Jackson’s so happy it feels kind of worth it.)
So it goes like this: Scott becomes a werewolf, because of Stiles’ stupid idea, and then Boyd and Erica become werewolves, because it’s a chance for them to change something in their lives, and Jackson becomes a werewolf, because he wants to. And suddenly like all of Stiles’ friends are fucking supernatural creatures, because why not.
And when Derek offers him the bite, Stiles declines, but when he explains about pack, and that humans can be part of it, and that he wants Stiles in it... Stiles is in.
Even if Scott isn’t. Scott will probably come around eventually, and even if he doesn’t, Boyd and Erica and Jackson are pack. And Derek... Derek is something.
Stiles likes Derek.
Sure, he may have originally sort of accused him of murder, but they got past that. Derek isn’t a murderer. He’s one of the Hale kids, just a couple years older, and Stiles remembers him from back in the days and remembers thinking he was cool. Of course, then Derek’s life crumbled around him and he disappeared. So Derek’s a pretty cool guy, and he didn’t deserve it back then and he doesn’t deserve it now.
But he deserves a friend.
And luckily, Stiles is pretty good at making new friends.
***
Jackson is a werewolf now - well, kind of, because there is something weird going on with Jackson, but he has all the super senses and shit, and he hears exactly what is going on in Laheys house.
Jackson tells Stiles, because at some point Jackson got an impression that Stiles can solve every problem, which is cute but also way too much pressure, and he actually growls as he explains about the freezer.
Stiles goes to his father, and his father sighs in such a defeated way that for a second Stiles feels eight and like the day he realized his dad can’t save his mom from dying. There’s a sense of failure in his voice, of a man who knows he lost, when he tells Stiles that he knows and can’t do anything about it. Apparently CPS has checked the Laheys out and it came to nothing, and Isaac insists everything is fine, and as long as he does, even someone reporting something again would probably not help.
Jackson growls again when Stiles explains it and he thinks for a second that maybe Jackson will end up killing Mr Lahey himself, but Jackson does something more drastic. He actually talks to his dad and asks for help.
Mr Whittemore explains about emancipation, and the options Isaac has if he wanted to speak up, and then he says pretty much the same as Stiles’ dad, although he doesn’t look like he cares as much.
Stiles can tell the worse days every time, now that he knows, because Isaac will drag his sleeves in a certain way and Jackson doesn’t sleep.
So they go to Derek.
Turns out when Derek talks about power and freedom, eyes red and glowing, Isaac listens.
He turns out to be a pretty awesome and cuddly werewolf, in the end. Stiles snorts when Derek buys him a smaller leather jacket just like his, and he’s happy to catch up on the whole making new friends thing, and he keeps Isaac down to earth when he gets a bit too lost in his new confidence.
He starts the emancipation process, and sleeps in the Stilinski guest room, and if Stiles sits with him and plays video games on mute at 3am when Isaac has nightmares, they don’t talk about it.
***
Scott doesn’t like Derek. Maybe it’s the fact that Derek is the walking talking personification of the fact that what happened to Scott isn’t a tragedy. Maybe it’s the fact Derek offers to help, and Scott seems allergic to it. Or maybe it’s the fact Derek’s presence and everything that came with him make Scott look away from Allison long enough to realize Stiles has other friends now, and Scott takes issue with it.
(Maybe it’s the fact that Stiles wants to kiss Derek stupid? But it can’t be, because Scott isn’t that observant.)
Stiles can’t be sure - but he’s sure it can’t keep going that way.
He tries to talk to Scott.
Allison tries to talk to Scott.
Derek tries to talk to Scott - not that any of them expected that one to work but Stiles sort of hoped experiencing the very real threat up close when the omega was killed would have woken him up a bit. But no, Stiles is wide awake, because now all of his friends are literally being hunted, Stiles is fucking terrified, and Scott is... well. Scott is an idiot. What else is new.
Mr. Lahey is found dead a couple days later.
Jackson looks vindicated but clueless enough to seem genuine. Stiles doesn’t push. Jackson, with the full moon closer and closer and his struggles with the transformation, is frankly too busy with his own problems to murder someone.
And Allison’s family is in town for her crazy murderer aunt’s funeral, and it seems her crazy murderer grandfather (jesus, with those genes, sometimes Stiles wonders if Allison is adopted) is about to be staying, and he gives everyone the creeps, which works wonders on Allison, who has to share one roof with the guy.
Her parents’ understandable unwillingness to allow her to spend the night with Scott certainly doesn’t help, but at least she gets to sometimes escape to Lydia’s.
But Gerard Argent is messing them all up, and Allison’s mood is foul, and that means Scott’s mood is even worse, even if he at least shares a table with them sometimes now, apparently resigned to it since the pack started sitting together, which meant both Stiles, because pack, and Allison, because Lydia, would have abandoned him more often than not.
And then the trouble starts.
No. Not really. The trouble has long since moved in and made itself at home. Then the trouble escalates.
They are still looking for a bestiary, and Stiles is glad that he has managed to get to know Allison, because god, she is cool. She’s so fucking cool, and badass, and fearless, and they execute the perfect heist together, and now Stiles has the keys, and Derek is going to meet him at school and --
Lydia.
There is Lydia crying in the parking lot, and Stiles can’t just leave her to it, even if he’s sure she won’t appreciate him. Not at first at least. He always wins people over with his great personality in the end.
„Go away.” Well, he’s right. „I don’t need anyone to see me cry.”
„You shouldn’t care if someone sees you cry.” He says, because it’s true. „You’re still beautiful, even when you cry, and you deserve to feel what you feel, no matter how it makes you look.”
„But I am still beautiful.”
„Beautiful and tragic. Like a princess.”
His phone pings in his pocket. It’s probably Derek. Or Allison. Or... fuck. Lydia rolls down the window. Yeah, no, the keys have to wait. This is important. This is Lydia, and she’s not okay.
„You’re gonna think I’m crazy.” She says, and Stiles manages not to laugh in her face because it would be kinda rude, and she definitely wouldn’t appreciate it, and he thinks maybe it was a bit of a mistake not to tell her anything.
„Lydia.” He says, and makes sure his voice is solid and serious, and reassuring. „If you trust me on anything, you can trust me on this - there is nothing you can say to me that’ll make you sound crazy.”
Because it’s true. In fact, Stiles could say a lot to Lydia that would make him sound crazy. In the distance, there is a round of applause. Stiles’ phone vibrates again. He is so fucked if he doesn’t move right now.
„Look, Lydia, you’re gonna kill me but I just need five minutes. Five minutes, I just need to do something I totally shouldn’t be doing, and then I’m your shoulder to cry upon. Platonically. And I won’t tell Jackson, promise.”
Lydia looks at him like he grew a second head, a mixure of confused and offended, but his window of time is closing and...
„Five minutes.”
It’s not five minutes. It’s not five minutes. It’s so much more than five minutes and frankly, Stiles can’t see the clock from where he is in the water but he knows it’s been so much longer and he’s gonna fucking die.
„You know, I am sort of pissed off they won’t at least get the bestiary off our dead bodies, but if I have to die in these shitty circumstances, then I guess I’m at least kind of glad to be dying alongside you.”
„Because you hate me and you’re glad I’m going down with you?” If he could, Stiles has a feeling Derek would actually chuckle but instead he sort of coughs, and his words are still slightly slurred.
„I don’t hate you and you know that.”
„But you used to.”
„What? I never hated you.”
Stiles knows Derek can hear bloody heartbeats. He can smell emotions. He knows it’s true. But then why does Stiles himself feel like he’s twisting the truth?
„I guess. It felt like it at first, for a good while.”
„I didn’t hate you.” He says, but it’s more true this time. „I used to resent you a little bit for offering my friends the solutions to their problems that I couldn't.”
Derek doesn’t answer, and Stiles thinks maybe that’s it, and lets the awkward silence wash over them, literally, the splashing of water and ominous presence of a killer around them.
„I can’t fucking stop thinking that I recognize that thing.”
„You’ve seen the thing at the mechanic literally this week, what the hell do you even mean?”
„No, I mean, it seems... familiar. It seems like I know it. Wouldn’t be a stretch for it to be a shapeshifter like you, would it?”
Again, Derek doesn’t say anything for a good while, and Stiles watches the creature move around the pool, creep further and further away from his phone, waits for the right moment to retrieve it.
„Stiles.” Derek eventually interrupts him, and Stiles wants to tell him to wait but something stops him. „I don’t think I was the one who solved their problems. I think I just offered them the only thing I could, but it wouldn’t be enough if they didn’t have you.”
Stiles muscles are on fire, and he can barely breathe, and he turns to look at Derek, and maybe dying isn’t a good time to share this kind of moment but fuck, he’s touched.
But the lizard is on the other side of the pool and if they could not die, then Stiles kind of has to try to.
„I’m not going to let you drown.” He says, and Derek opens his mouth in confusion to ask why and then Stiles can see his eyes open wide in realization as Stiles drops him. They’re near the edge, but not near enough, and he would rather swim closer on his own, because that thing may be afraid of water, but they don’t know how badly, and it’s better to risk one of them rather than both.
He can see that it realizes Stiles is about to be in reach, can see it run towards him, and he’s only a second from gettin snatched but... he’s got the phone. He’s got the fucking phone.
He needs to make a call.
He needs to fish out Derek.
His phone isn’t quite waterproof, and it’ll be harder to call without both his hands but Derek has already been under for too long and Stiles doesn’t know how long he can hold his breath and does the paralysis affect his lungs and...
Fuck.
He dives in.
Derek’s alive.
„I think I may hate you.”
„Fair.” Stiles breathes out, and he hits the number from memory because the screen is already glitching from the water.
Scott picks up quickly, thank God.
Stiles is so happy with relief he could cry.
„Scott! I need--”
„I can’t talk.”
And then Scott fucking. Hangs up.
The phone sparks and dies. Stiles lets go from the shock. He’s barely staying above the water.
„I think I may hate Scott.”
Derek laughs, joylessly.
„Tell me about it.”
And Stiles thinks that he won’t be able to bring himself to try and tell Derek that Scott would be a good addition to the pack anymore. Right now, Stiles doesn’t want Scott to be part of the pack, he wants to turn back time and call literally anyone else, Jackson or Erica or Boyd or even his dad, someone who wouldn’t have hung up on him, but his phone is dead and he’s not sure how much longer he can keep them afloat.
And that, apparently, is when Lydia decides to show up.
Stiles is surprised she has apparently decided to look for him at all, instead of getting mad he ghosted her and driving off. But here she is. At the pool. Facing off the fucking lizard thing.
Oh God, Lydia is gonna die.
Lydia doesn’t scream. She freezes, like facing off a wild animal, and the creature... doesn’t attack her. It freezes too, the two of them locked in a stare off, and then suddenly the creature tenses, jumps and... Lydia flinches, and the thing shoots off away from her, out of the building... through the roof, because the school needs another investigation on its premises. Stiles sighs as he uses up the last surge of adrenaline to drag himself and Derek closer to the edge.
Lydia helps them out, Stiles first, because Derek is still not quite in a shape to help them get himself out of the water, and he’s fucking heavy, and by the end of it Lydia is just as soaked as they are and they’re all lying down on the cold tile and trying to breathe.
„Stiles?” Lydia says.
„Yeah?”
„I think you were right. And I think I’m not crazy.”
Stiles laughs. He laughs, and laughs, and it’s not a happy sound, it’s a bit hysterical, and he rolls over, and he hides it in Derek’s chest, and keeps on laughing, Derek’s chest moving a bit with his own stunted chuckles because Stiles’ hysteria is contagious.
„You should like. Massage his muscles, for the paralysis to end faster.” Lydia says, and props herself up on her elbows to sit up a bit, watching the two of them with careful eyes.
„Why me? You won’t help me?” He shoots back, but he does sit up and start to gently but firmly press on Derek’s muscles. Derek’s face squints in discomfort, which is not good but also probably a sign it’s working, and Derek’s body is... real nice under his hands.
„It’ll do you good too, after the plunge you took. And I have fresh nails.” Stiles isn’t sure how the nails would suffer in the process but he doesn’t dare voice that thought.
„That thing...” Lydia continues. „The... lizard?” Stiles nods, and then Lydia says what he’s been thinking the entire time, what he already told Derek. „It looked familiar.”
And it hits him, the realization, just as it hits her, their eyes widening as they both whisper at the same time, in sync, suddenly completely certain.
„Jackson.”
Well, fuck.
Of course, that’s when Scott finally runs into the room, all furry, because Scott is an idiot. Lydia stares at him.
„Oh yeah, by the way, Lydia. Werewolves exist too. Derek is one. And as you see, Scott.”
„What happened?” Scott asks, looking more human and more confused.
„Yeah, what happened?” Stiles finds himself screaming back, because he’s tired and he’s angry. „Maybe you’d know what happened if you didn’t hang up on me! We’d probably be dead in the water, literally, if not for Lydia!”
Lydia preened. Scott looked somewhat chastised but still defensive.
„I was busy.”
„Busy?! I’m never busy to take your phone calls when you need to moan about Allison but you were busy when I was fucking dying?!”
„How was I supposed to know you’re dying?”
„By talking to me for two fucking seconds!”
Scott doesn’t acknowledge it. Instead he says: „And what is he doing here anyway?” He says it with a sneer, looking at Derek, and something in Stiles snaps.
„What the fuck is your problem with Derek! He’s literally been basically here as my bodyguard because you were playing, like actually playing, on the field, not like me, and I couldn’t exactly ask you, could I? He’s my friend, and my pack, and he’s just as involved in this as you are, and he’s done nothing but help us, help you, since the beginning! What the fuck are you still so hung up on!”
Scott opened his mouth and closed it, several times, like he didn’t know what to say, like all his arguments fell flat.
„He killed Peter.” He eventually spat, but sounded petulant and resigned.
„Well, Peter had to be killed, and I really think maybe you shouldn’t regret not getting to fucking murder someone! It’s not like he enjoyed that, Peter was his uncle!”
„But it was supposed to turn me back human!”
„And what if it didn’t work?” Stiles says, and the words drop like a bomb in the silent, almost cathedral acoustics of the pool. „I don’t know about this whole alpha business and I know Derek is still struggling but if I know one thing for sure, it’s that he’s still a worlds better alpha than you would ever be.”
Scott splutters, clearly offended, and Stiles has no patience for it.
„Hey, I--”
„You’re sixteen, Scott. You’re fucking sixteen, and stupid.” Stiles says and Lydia, who’s watching them quietly from the sidelines, snorts. Stiles bets all she’s missing watching them is a bucket of popcorn.
And that’s when Derek finally pitches in.
„I didn’t even want to be the alpha.” He says, and Stiles knew that, in a way, but he never actually heard Derek confirm his suspicions out loud. „But I couldn’t consider another option.”
„Why would you give me hope then.”
Derek looks like he’s not sure what to answer, and Stiles has his suspicions, but it doesn’t matter, in the end.
„Oh my god.” He groans. „If you could just stop with this being the worst thing to happen to you? It cured your asthma! It literally turned you into the cool kid!”
„No. No, it didn’t. I wanted it to, but all it did, it made me the lacrosse captain. You were the one who suddenly sat at the cool kids table and you weren’t there anymore!”
Stiles is almost speechless. Almost.
„Then you know how I felt when you first met Allison!”
He’s pretty sure he can hear Derek mutter quietly „Wow, you two really are like siblings.” but he ignores it and keeps going.
"The only reason I even started hanging out with others in the first place was because you had no time for me because of Allison. And I still haven't quite forgiven that, and I may not forgive you for that for a while, the way you just didn't even try to make time for me, but I am sorry it happened this way and I want this fixed. But I am also not going to apologize for that because I had my reasons and also because I am genuinely glad I made friends with the others, no matter how it all came to be."
"Good. That's... Good." Scott says, and he sounds so dejected and god... Why does Stiles love him. He’s so stupid.
"Scott. I'm glad I have them all in my life, but I still want you in it. I don't want it without you in it. I fucking miss you."
And fuck it. Stiles is wet, and cold, and yeah, very wet, but Scott kinda deserves that, so he goes in for a hug, and Scott doesn’t even protest. They hold each other for longer than is acceptable but holy shit. Scott is warm, actually, and that feels nice.
But eventually, they pull away, and Derek is looking at them strangely, and Scott looks back, meets his eyes.
"Scott... Listen, I didn't even want to be the alpha. But I couldn't stand the idea of someone else being the alpha. I couldn't stand the idea of there no longer being the Hale pack, and I was the only Hale left, the only one who could do it. And I think maybe I'm doing it all wrong. I don't know how to be an alpha, let alone a good alpha. I don't know how to be like mom or like Laura, and I've barely come to terms with the fact Laura isn't there and Peter... Whatever. I don't know. Maybe I was just trying too hard to approach this the way I would with my family. But they're not."
"Not yet." Stiles adds, and Derek looks at him and there's a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
„What I am trying to say is... Look, I will only offer it once more. Our pack isn’t some evil sect I am trying to recruit you into. It’s basically all of your friends already, and I can actually help you, and you’re not going to do well on your own, and that’s not a threat, that’s a fact, Scott, a biological fact about a species you are now. Werewolves need people. With them. Around them. So if you don’t want to, that’s okay. But if you ever want to join this pack, it’s your last chance.”
„I...” And for a second, Stiles is sure Scott will refuse again, and he wants to jump back in that fucking pool and drown this time. But instead Scott says: „Okay. Okay, I’ll join you. I want to join you. I’m kinda tired of being left out too.”
Eventually they hear sirens, and they escape, and Lydia drives them home because she is probably right that neither Stiles or Derek should do it after the evening they had. Stiles gets home way too late and way too wet and almost cries when he realizes his dad is in rather than at the school and he gives him a hot chocolate and a lecture and tells him it’s okay if he wants to stay home the next day, because his dad is awesome. But Stiles shakes his head, because really, right now he doesn’t want peace and quiet.
He wants his pack.
Even if he dreads the morning. Rightfully.
Because to summarize, Gerard Argent is the principal, and he’s evil and wants them dead, and Jackson is a half-lizard controlled by someone to be killing people and he has no idea, and Danny is very clearly suspicious of them, and Derek is still not quite a pro at this whole alpha thing but he doesn’t get any time to learn in peace, oh, and they have no fucking clue what Lydia is, except that she’s something, and not okay, but it’s okay, because Scott is part of the pack, and Stiles thinks for now, that’s enough.
Baby steps.
Boyd and Erica are there, and Isaac is there, and Jackson is there - and he will be, if they have anything to say about it, and even Scott is there now, and Lydia. It’s not gonna be easy or fun, but they’ll get through it.
Together.
Stiles kisses Derek stupid.