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So, if you were going to be entirely honest with yourself, you had to admit that you’d always been just a little bit hopeless. Mostly with romance. You’d had crushes on a bunch of people over the years but never once had you done anything about it - after all, how the hell were you supposed to even do that? Talk to the person you have a crush on? Surely not. That was too far fetched, no you’d rather just watch them from afar and think about them.
You’d done that with Erica for at least four months now. You’d noticed her one day while she was taking notes in class, and something about the way she looked that day just struck you suddenly, and it had kept growing from there. You knew she struggled at school, that she’d been bullied in the past, and you didn’t know how anyone could do that to her. How wasn’t there more people trying to date her? You’d say that was better for you, but that still involved you having the balls to approach her.
The day she fell in the gym and had a seizure, something just overtook you, and you dashed to help her. Between yourself and Stiles, you managed to get her to the nurse, and then you insisted on accompanying her to the hospital until someone could join her. The entire ride to the hospital you knew she was bracing for you to say something mean, to insult or mock her, but you didn’t, of course. The two of you didn’t have much conversation but you’d like to think that at least she appreciated the company. When your mother called asking why you were missing from your classes, you explained the situation and she was, thankfully, understanding and had even teased you a little. She didn’t even know about your crush! She just.. Had a sixth sense. Mom stuff, you guessed.
You’d left when an older guy arrived, and for a moment your stomach was tied in knots, sure this must be some sort of older boyfriend. But while you walked home, absently scrolling on your phone, it came to you without warning that you knew his face - that was Derek Hale. What the hell was he doing visiting Erica?
You’d spoken to Stiles the next day to update him, and demand answers, and the guy just looked totally panicked. He’d tried to dash away, presumably to talk to Scott, but you weren’t having it. You wanted answers. It was Allison Argent that gave them to you, she mentioned something off handedly as she passed by to go to her locker, and all you caught was the word ‘Werewolf’. Your brain ran a million miles an hour attempting to compute what the hell she was talking about, and your wide eyes turned to Stiles.
“You. Me. Lunch. Explanation.” And he could only nod hopelessly.
So, that was what happened. At lunch, you sat with Scott and Stiles out in the jeep for privacy, and they filled you in on everything. Once you had your hunch from Allison, they figured it’d be better to explain than attempt to keep it hidden while you had ideas that could get you killed. That was when they decided that Derek must’ve wanted to turn Erica. When you all headed through to the cafeteria to find Allison, to give her the heads up, you saw her.
She looked radiant.
Your mouth hung open slightly, and it took Scott reaching out to forcibly close it for you to realise you were staring.
“Jealous?” She asked you as she passed by, smirk on her lips. You turned and watched as she left, still gobsmacked. Jealous was so far from what you felt, no, you were just so gay. Oh you were so fucking gay.
“What the hell?” Lydia muttered nearby, clearly she was a little jealous of Erica’s overnight transformation, and from what you’d gathered she didn’t know the cause for the sudden transformation either. You looked around, and everyone else was equally stunned for just a moment before returning to what they were doing, now accompanied by gossip.
“Oh I need to thank Derek.” You muttered, and Stiles elbowed you.
“No! Bad.” He scolded, as if you were a dog, to which you only shrugged. You might do it anyway.
From then onward, you were pulled into the trouble that Scott and Stiles regularly ended up involved in. You had no idea how they survived anything before then, considering how self involved they were, and how oblivious. More than once you found yourself grabbing them by the neck of their t-shirt or their collar to physically prevent them from running into danger. This also meant seeing Erica semi-regularly, and you were sure she was getting more gorgeous every time. You didn’t speak to her often, if at all, usually too stunned to open your mouth. She, however, definitely did speak. She seemed sure, as she had been that day in the cafeteria, that you were somehow jealous of her or something similar.
You caught her looking at Stiles once, and you understood. She had her own hopeless crush on him, while you had one on her. You said nothing, didn’t acknowledge it to her, or to Stiles who you were positive had not noticed this about her.
When you she came and dropped herself in beside you in English class one day, you knew you were in trouble. You both listened in silence while the teacher spoke, waiting until conversation broke out amongst your classmates to speak.
“What do you know about the kanima?” She asked simply, and though she wasn’t looking at you, you became hyper aware of how close she was, the slight heat radiating from her body. Werewolf perk, according to Scott.
“Literally nothing. I only found out about Werewolves like.. The day you came back turned.” You replied, gripping your pen tighter in your hand. Erica’s hand was suddenly on your thigh, and a shiver ran up your spine. What the hell was she doing? It traced upward slightly, and then you felt the pointed tips of her claws. So, so gay.
“So if I asked you about.. Lydia. Or Stiles.. You’d have nothing to say?”
“Nothing. I don’t care about Lydia but I don’t think it’s her just given her.. Everything. And it’s definitely not Stiles.”
“Oh, we know Stiles isn’t the kanima. That wasn’t what I was talking about.” She said, finally turning her eyes toward you, and if a look could kill, you’d have dropped dead in an instant.
“Yeah, I figured. I don’t like him like that. I just knew he’d know what was going on, cause I’d seen him with Derek before. I forced him to tell me about Werewolves.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to know why you knew Derek. Seemed weird for him to be visiting you. Thought it might be some sort of weird.. Grooming thing.”
“Oh. Fucking ew.” She muttered, retracting her claws, but not removing her hand.
“Didn’t hurt to check, cause like I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone but you were like, particularly vulnerable in that moment.” You mumbled, trailing off toward the end. That should’ve been your chance to confess, to admit that no you weren’t interested in Stiles but you were interested in her especially when she was still touching you.
But then the teacher spoke, and it startled you both, and Erica removed her hand. The moment was over, and you’d missed your chance.
You all knew who it was now, or at least had very strong suspicions. Stiles cornered Erica near the locker rooms to talk to her about the entire situation, and you stumbled across them. She was looking at him, all sad and longing, about to say something.
“Stiles!” You called out and dashed to catch up to them both. Erica’s eyes landed on you, hard and cold, anger behind it.
Erica watched as they had a silent conversation. Stiles shook his head, nobody girl raised her brows, he flung his arms out incredulously, she rolled her eyes, he nodded, she squinted at him judgmentally. She hardly even had a crush on Stiles anymore, but the fact that someone else might have him when she’d finally actually gotten his attention made a bitter taste rise in her mouth. She didn’t even really want Stiles, she just didn’t want this other nobody girl to have him. Finally, they seemed to remember Erica was there, and turned to her.
“Sorry about him. He’s stupid.” The girl said, and Erica’s head tilted slightly, surprised by that response. That was the last thing she’d expected them to be communicating about.
“I am not. I just.. Don’t think sometimes.”
“Yeah. Stupid.” Her eyes rolled, and a small voice in the back of Erica’s mind recognised just how pretty the girl was. She clenched her hands into fists, forcing that thought away. No. Even if she wanted this girl, that wouldn’t work, they were on totally different sides of this entire thing.
“You’re cute together.” Erica commented with a sneer. That was when Scott burst through the door behind you all, followed by Jackson. Erica hurried to grab and restrain Jackson, prepared to take him to Derek, but could’ve sworn that she’d overheard a soft ‘ew, not ever, not any man’. Good to know.
The next chance you had to say something was in the library. You were struggling to keep up with everything, to understand what the hell was going on, you were always learning something new while in the middle of a situation. The light above you burst, and you knew it was directly over the aisle where Erica stood. The second you could do so safely, you rounded the shelves and found her on the ground seizing.
“She’s having a seizure!” You called out, throwing yourself down to your knees so you could lift her head from the floor, attempting to use the knowledge that you’d gained from that first aid course you did last summer to get her into the proper position.
“We need to take her to the hospital.” Stiles said, coming to join you while Scott checked on Allison.
“No- no hospital. Derek.” Erica insisted. You looked between them, then grunted and attempted to start lifting her into your arms.
“She has to get her medication, she needs a hospital.” Stiles insisted, hauling himself up to his feet with some effort.
“She’s the one with epilepsy, Stiles. She knows what she needs.” You insisted. Erica looked up at you, surprised, and almost smiled, but quickly was overridden with discomfort from the seizure. When Scott joined you, he looked between you and Stiles for instructions.
“To Derek.” You confirmed, and Scott just nodded.
Stiles came along with you too, and watched from a distance, clearly not approving of the course of action. You couldn’t blame him for it, you did understand - she’d always gone to hospital for her seizures before, and what the hell did Derek know about werewolf epilepsy? But, you trusted Erica.
You knelt down in the old train car, Erica’s head in your lap while you gently carded your fingers through her hair.
“This is going to hurt.” Derek grunted, then with almost no effort, he broke her arm. Erica gave a strangled scream, and Scott physically started, as if unsure if he should protect her. Then, Derek dug his claws into her arm to make her bleed.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Hale.” You directed at him, eyes burning two holes into his skull.
“I don’t. But the break should start her healing and she can bleed the toxin out.” At least his thought process seemed to have some logic to it, judging by Stiles nodding in agreement when you looked up at him. He seemed to know the most between him and Scott, so if he thought this made sense, then you supposed it did.
Finally, Erica relaxed and stopped seizing, and you looked down at her, relief clear in your face.
“Thank you, for trusting me.” She whispered, and you gently removed some hair from her forehead. You didn’t know what to say to that, so you just shrugged, hoping just being present would help her.
“People- when you’re sick people start thinking you’re not capable. I get treated like a kid a lot. But you just believed me when I said to bring me to Derek instead of the hospital.”
“Who am I to tell you about your own epilepsy? I’m nobody.” You said softly, aware of the three sets of eyes on you both that made your cheeks heat.
“You’re not nobody. You’re my friend.” She said, shakily reaching up to take your hand in her own. Your heart flipped and twisted in your chest, and the sappy idea that your hands fit perfectly together planted itself firmly in your mind.
Erica blinked slowly up at her favourite pretty girl - because that had happened at some point and she’d given up trying to dismiss the slowly growing feelings she had. Though the seizure had stopped, she was still slightly woozy, struggling with the light directly above her. She smiled as you moved to hide the light from her view, and it gave you a slightly angelic appearance.
“You- did you know- fuck, you’re.. Your eyes. You’re so pretty.” Erica struggled to say, making Derek roll his eyes, though she didn’t see that. Your eyes widened slightly, and Erica had to fight the urge to reach up and touch your face to make sure you kept looking at her. You were very quickly becoming one of her favourite people.
Jackson was cured, and Erica and Boyd were preparing to run. To leave. You followed them from the warehouse and grabbed Erica’s wrist gently. It would’ve taken no effort at all for her to pull away and continue to leave, but she didn’t. She stopped and turned to face you, curious but scared too.
“Are you really going to leave?” You asked softly, glancing from her to Boyd. You’d spoken to him maybe once, but who could blame you? Your entire mind revolved around Erica.
“We can’t stay here with Derek.” She replied, brushing her hair behind her ear, a nervous habit from before she was turned, one she’d lost with her newfound confidence.
“What about Isaac? Stiles,” you paused and took a deep breath, finding confidence that you didn’t have, “what about me?”
“I- we have nowhere to go.”
“What was it that Derek said, when you were waiting out for us to leave the house? Trapped us inside? A pack only needs.. Four right? A leader.. And three betas.” You said, quickly losing your nerve, instead focusing on your hands.
“We won’t join Scott either, not with Allison.” Boyd said firmly, and you held up your hands to placate them. You knew what she’d done. She’d tracked them down in the woods, filled them with arrows, and got them caught by Gerard. It was only Stiles’ text to you to find them that had gotten them out of that basement, preventing them from running away again already.
“I didn’t say Scott. I meant, you two.. Isaac.. And me.” You said, shrugging as you finished your sentence as if to make the suggestion less important, as if the entire offer wasn’t the only thing that had any chance at stopping them from leaving Beacon Hills forever. As if you weren’t, effectively, offering to be a family.
“You’d do that?” Erica asked breathlessly, and you again just shrugged. She stepped forward into your space and slowly lifted her hand to cup your cheek, forcing you to look at her. Your eyes flicked between hers, a warm brown, and her ruby red lips. She chuckled softly, not unkind, the sound was warm and all encompassing and for a moment nothing existed but the two of you.
“I’m not much of a co-alpha.” She mumbled, her confident smirk slowly returning to her face.
“Don’t need to be. It’s.. temporary. We’ll find someone to lead us properly. Someone that isn’t Derek. Or get Derek to get his shit together.” You suggested, borderline breathless.
“Yeah. Okay.” She nodded, and you couldn’t stop yourself then. Your arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her in close, smashing your lips together. You kissed like it was the last thing you’d do, like it was the only way to keep surviving into the next moment. She laughed against your lips, but eagerly returned your kiss, staining your mouth red.
“One month.” Boyd grunted when you separated, and you nodded.
“I can accept that. I just.. This whole thing is shit, Derek is an asshole. You deserve another chance. A better one.” You laced your finger’s with Erica’s and she giggled, you suspected if she weren’t in heels she’d have done a silly little happy dance. Your heart soared high in your chest.
Fuck she’s so cute. You’re so gay.