Ain't nobody fresher than this motherfucking clique

Dear Students and Teachers of Silver Crescent Institute,

We are sending this letter regarding the recent flooding that caused the almost complete destruction of our beloved school. We are now working towards raising funds to start the workings for the school, but we are aware that this may take months- if not the entire school year.

Regardless, students of the last year especially are in need of their education, and thankfully we were able to get in contact with the head teacher of Beacon Hills High School, Mrs Nathalie Martin.

The Head Teacher has magnanimously decided to allow us to study in her school for this entire school year, and I hope you join us into thanking them for their generosity.

If you take the bus to school, you can still wait at your house, but instead of taking you to SCI, it will take you to BHHS. The map to the school follows.

Kind regards,

The Head Teacher,

P. Hale

Derek walked swiftly down the stairs, his bag already on his back and almost collided with his sister. The girl glared at him, fixing her hair in a ponytail. “Where is the fire?” she asked, and the boy ignored her, finally reaching the kitchen.

His older sister, Laura, was already there, making herself a cup of coffee with a done with life expression on her face. Derek grinned at her. “School hasn’t even started yet, sis.” He reminded her, and she scowled at him.

“You are not an English teacher at Beacon Hills High.” She pointed out. “When you become one, everyone will notice, by seeing the will of living slowly emptying your eyes.”

Their younger sister, Cora, walked in, laughing at Laura’s antics. “Oh come on, Laurie. We are amazing.” She said, and Laura rolled her eyes.

“You want a lift to school?” she asked, finishing off her coffee and looking between both of her siblings.

Cora avoided her eyes, and Derek gave a fake cheerful laugh. “Ah! I would love to, Laurie, but I, uh, need to drive Boyd and Isaac.” He said, hoping she was distracted enough not to notice his heartbeat. It wasn’t exactly a lie. Well, neither Boyd nor Isaac knew that he was going to drive them to school with his brand new Camaro, but… details.

Cora grabbed Derek’s arm. “And me, remember?” she asked, pinching him with a smiley expression on her face.

Derek winced, but he just nodded. No one should face the complete destruction of one’s social life that came after someone realised that your sister not only taught to the same school as you, but also drove you to school daily.

Derek was still amazed at how exactly Cora had managed to spend last year in the same school as Laura without once having to have her take her to school. Impressive.

Laura just shrugged, grabbing another thermos of coffee and her bag. “Bye, mom!” she shouted, before disappearing outside.

Talia Hale appeared in the kitchen a few moments afterwards, holding Laura’s three years old daughter in her arms. “When exactly were you two planning on leaving?” she asked, surveying the situation from the doorway.

Cora downed her cereals in seconds, and then approached the baby. “Oh, hello Camy.” She cooed, taking her from her mother’s hands. “I am just waiting for Derek to finish off. Is everyone else already gone?” she asked, as the little girl wrapped her hands around her neck.

“Auntie Corrie!” she said, starting to babble about her day so far. She had woken up about three minutes ago maybe, and her day was already filled with drama and surprise. Busy life of a three years old.

Her mother rolled her eyes fondly. “Uncle Peter had to go and fix some paperwork at the school. Apparently they need a new IT teacher, and Peter has volunteered, as Head Teacher and all of that. Your father had the night shift at the hospital and is still asleep. Your cousin Malia left earlier with Aunte Cordelia.” She listed off and Cora sighed.

Derek gave a peck on the cheek on his mom and his niece Camila. “Have a rawr day, Camy.” He commanded, and she flashed her golden eyes at him, letting out a tiny cat growl. Derek nodded his head approvingly, and then he and Cora left.

Cora immediately claimed shot gun, as her brother started the car. “Why are you denying Boyd of his love for riding shotgun?” he asked, pulling out of the driveway, and she grinned cheekily at him. “Don’t answer that question if you are going to say something inappropriate, baby sis.” He warned, and she pouted.

“You are no fun.” She complained, and Derek nodded in agreement. He would rather play mister no fun forever if it meant not having to deal with his sister making sex jokes. She was just in sophomore year!

They bantered a little until they stopped at the bus stop where both Isaac Lahey and Vernon Boyd were standing, waiting the bus. Cora rolled down the window. “Get in, losers, we’re going-”

“To Beacon Hills High.” Interrupted Derek, grinning when she gave him the stinky eye.

“I hate you so much.” She decided, crossing her arms as the two boys climbed in the backseat, Boyd giving a heartbroken look at where Cora was sitting in shotgun.

“Oh, how will I live now.” Said Derek, tonelessly, causing the curly blond boy behind him to laugh.

“You guys nervous?” he asked, almost jumping with static energy. “Cora, how is the school? Are there many werewolves?” he continued, and Derek huffed at his excitement. Cora and Isaac had always gotten along, and for a while, Derek had been worried that they were going to start dating.

Until both of them had come out to him, both of them as asexual homoromantic. They even had matching black rings on the middle finger of their right hands.

Cora grinned at him. “Beacon Hills is quite chill, nothing happens. The only other wolf is Erica and obviously Malia. And from the staff, Laura.” She looked suddenly uncomfortable. “Only wolf that I know of. Sometimes I have a weird feeling like I am in another wolf’s den, but…”

Boyd gave a long suffering sigh, and both Hale’s gave him the look. “Stop being nervous, you will have the chance to see the love of your life.” Snapped Isaac, causing a laugh out of the siblings.

Boyd gave him the stinky eye. “I was thinking about how not cool it will be having to spend our Senior year in a school we know nothing about. It’s going to be annoying.” He commented, and Cora rolled her eyes at him.

The she looked at where her brother was going to park and stopped him just in time. “NO! You can’t park there!” she told him, and Derek looked at her puzzled, as he parked somewhere else. “That’s Jackson’s spot. You don’t want to piss him off on the first day, since he’s one of the student council.” She told him, stepping out of the car.

Boyd gave him a pointed look. “See? Welcome to the school of the spoiled brats.” He said, using Laura’s name for the BHHS students.

They stepped out of the Camaro, and Cora rushed to her friend Erica Reyes and cousin Malia Tate. The blonde grinned and waved at Boyd, who turned into a huge pile of mush and waved back. Isaac mimed throwing up, and Derek snorted.

Then, a Porsche appeared and parked in the spot that Cora had called ‘Jackson’s spot’. The boy that stepped out, looked like a magazine model. He had black Raybans on, a scarf wrapped around his neck and a leather jacket on. “So this is Jackson.” Commented Isaac. “Wow, I can smell the douche coming off him.” He said, and Malia snorted from where she was walking up to the guy. For some reason, the human looked up at Derek and the other two, and gave them a condescending look, before giving Malia his full attention.

“Yes, Hale?” he asked, assuming the douchebag™ posture.

Malia huffed. “Liam left his jacket in Stiles’ car, but Hayden was coming and even though he is going to freeze to death, he decided to follow Scott’s steps and that Love can heal any wound.” She complained, and Jackson rolled his eyes.

“The McCalls are the worst.” He answered, handing her a key from his pocket. Then, with his bag secured on his back, he walked off.

Malia looked at the trio and beckoned them over. “You have to meet Ally before everything start. Most of your class is already standing there.” She explained, when Boyd and his friends stopped beside her.

She made a quick stop next to what Derek assumed was a car and not a huge pile of trash. “What in the holy hell is that?!” asked Isaac, looking horrified at the blue jeep. “This…”

“This is Roscoe, Stiles’ car.” She explained easily, patting the car’s hood. “So many memories.” She added, fondly. “But then I realised that Stiles loved her more than he would ever love me. It was heart-breaking.” She finished, grabbing a jacket and starting to walk off again.

“Who’s Stiles?” asked Derek, who had some vague recollection of the strange name but no visual images.

“Remember when Cora was in Freshman year and got allocated to help the Student Council as a punishment for that thing with Mr Harris? And then the Student Council came over to your house a few times? Well, Stiles is the pretty one with long lashes and moles.” She explained. “Brunette? Yeah. Then obviously, there is Jackson. And Allison who is the one with long dark hair that looks like an actual angel, but don’t let it fool you: she’s vicious. Lydia who is an actual goddess, and makes you want to kneel before her by just giving you one of her looks. And Scott, who’s dating Ally and is an actual puppy.” She rattled off.

“That’s Allison.” She said pointing at where a girl with long hair was standing, speaking at the gathered group of students from Silver Crescent Institute. “Hurry up!” she told them, and then left.

The girl was already speaking when they reached Kira Yukimura, one of the students from Senior Year. She waved at them. Apparently the Seniors were the only ones who had bothered by coming to BHHS. There was a scarce number of juniors, two or maybe three sophomores and no freshmen. “… Please, keep the hallways clean, and do not loiter around.”

A guy that Derek vaguely remembered as Ennis snorted. “Or what, princess?” he asked, causing a few laughs.

Allison smiled, her dimples showing and walked up to him. Then, with the calmest voice ever: “Or I will have to deal with you myself. I am Allison Argent, national champion in both Judo and Archery.” She patted his cheek, probably enjoying the way he had paled substantially. “I can well handle teenage boys.” She added, and looked at the group.

“Anyone else want to say something?” Obviously, no one spoke. Derek caught his ex-girlfriend Paige looking at him with a grimace on her pretty face and hastily looked away. How do you face the girl that you dumped on the last day of school, after you came out as gay?

Her best friend, Heather, was looking at the school like she owned the place, which made sense, since she used to attend BHHS back in Freshman year.

Allison smiled. “Great! Now follow me!” she initiated, turning around and opening the door of the school. “Welcome to BHHS!”

They made their way down the lobby, students looking at them with curios eyes, and looking at Allison with unconcealed envy or awe. Life must be hard for the president of the student council, with all the attention.

Allison didn’t stop once, until a girl with flaming red hair approached her, a pile of papers in her hands, stomping down to her. “Allison!” she called, eyes ablaze and lips pursed. “Have you seen Cora Hale?”

The brunette smiled grimly. “Good morning to you too, Lydia.” She answered, and Isaac and Derek exchanged a look. So this was the infamous Lydia, then.

The red haired girl looked at the group of student with a grimace. “Not a good morning. Malia stole my coffee.” She answered, and Allison dimpled.

“Oh, come on, you love the girl.” She giggled, covering her mouth with a hand. Derek could see why his cousin, notorious coffee stealer, called her an angel.

Lydia pretended to think about it for a second. “Hold on, let me think... No, I really don’t think I do.” She looked at her with a more serious expression. “Cora?” she asked, and Allison gave her a sly smile.

“She was outside with Malia and Rica before.” She shrugged and Lydia nodded.

She glared at the students stood before her, and suddenly Derek knew what Malia meant a few moments ago. If she had been a wolf, she would have certainly been an Alpha. “I’ll see you in a few moments in the gym.” She said, managing to make it sound both like a threat and a promise. Then, she stalked away.

More than a few students watched her leave with an awed expression, and Allison grinned at them. “I would say don’t worry, she’s a sweetheart really, but I would be lying.” She told them, before beckoning them further down the hallway.

She opened another door, and they suddenly stood in what could only be the gymnasium of the school. The only other person there was a teenager, wearing a green shirt and a brown jacket on top. He lit up when Allison and the group walked in, dropping the lacrosse ball he was playing with and rushing towards them.

“Ally!” he called, stopping next to her and pecking her on the cheek. “Good morning.” He greeted.

The girl beamed back at him, and Derek felt suddenly the growing suspicion that those two were that couple, the disgustingly sweet and gentle couple that was in every single school.

The boy looked at them with a grin. “Hi! I’m Scott, Scott McCall.” He greeted them, and Isaac looked at Boyd with an arched eyebrow.

“Stuck up snobs, uh?” he asked, and the dark boy hushed him with a look. Derek snorted.

Before anyone else could speak, the door opened again, two boys stepping in. The first one, Jackson Douchebag, was dragging the second one behind him. The second boy was a little taller than Jackson, with a messily styled mass of brown hair on top of his head. He looked half asleep, his purple plaid unbuttoned to show a blue shirt inside.

Scott lit up seeing them. “Stiles! I had been looking for you all this time, dude, where were you?” he asked, looking more and more like an eager puppy. Malia was really spot on with her descriptions.

The brunette- Stiles- gave a long suffering sigh when Jackson finally let go of him. “I was helping the lower schools, and drinking my coffee” he shook said coffee in the air “when suddenly I was barbarically assaulted by our very own asshole over here, Jackson.” He drawled, and the blue eyed boy looked at him unimpressed.

“He was annoying the hell out of Mason and your little brother, so I dragged him here.” He said, feeling almost proud of himself.

Scott looked baffled. “Dude!”

Stiles shook his coffee in Scott’s face. “Well, excuse me, Scotty, but I had every right, okay! Not only I brought his ungrateful ass to school this morning, I also had to suffer through his monologue about Hayden that could rival your own after Allison broke up with you- I’m pretty sure it runs in the family, god bless Melissa for escaping that ugly set of genes, but really, I wasn’t doing anything, I was just pointing out that love stories in Sophomore Year don’t usually last, don’t look at me like that, you did break up with Ally in both Freshman and Sophomore year, but like I didn’t meant it in a rude way-”

“Stilinski, be quiet.” Ordered Lydia’s voice as the red haired walked in, headed towards the group.

Derek, who had felt a little dazed after Stiles’ ramble, shook his head. Both Isaac and Boyd seemed similarly affected. Lydia looked at the students, and tutted. “They are all light-headed now, because of you.” She commented, and the brunette looked at her in outrage as the other three hid their smiles.

“What! I didn’t do anything!” he complained, disgruntled, and drank his own coffee.

Allison shook her head fondly and turned back to them. “Good morning. As I’ve already said, I am Allison Argent, president of the school council and Head of the Language Department.”

“Also, the school’s very own heartbreaker.” Added Stiles, helpfully. The girl smirked.

Scott grinned at them, excited. “I’m Scott McCall, co-captain of the lacrosse team. I’m Head of the Science Department.” He explained.

“An actual human sized puppy.” Told them Stiles, looking at them convinced.

Jackson snorted. “Jackson Whittemore, co-captain of the lacrosse team. I’m Head of the Sports Department.”

Stiles gave him a shit eating grin. “School’s local douchebag, and constantly looks like he has a broom up his ass, but don’t let it fool you: he actually has two.”

This caused a few laughs and a snort from Scott. Jackson and Lydia both rolled their eyes at him. “I’m Lydia Martin, holder of the National Academy of Sciences Award in Mathematics, highest GPA in the school, president of the self-defence Club and Head of Maths department.” She listed off. Many looked at her with newfound reverence.

Stiles nodded. “She’s also the unofficial president of the entire school.” He added, before straightening up. “Stiles Stilinski, captain of the Cheerleading team and Head of Humanities department.” He said, doing a little bow.

“Hyperactive little bunny.” Commented Allison, with a smirk.

“Pure concentrate of sarcasm, sass and ass.” Added Scott, winking at him.

“Firmly believes himself to be funny.” Remarked Jackson, giving him a superior look.

“Number two in every single subject we take together.” Finished Lydia, inspecting her nails.

This caused a laugh from Isaac and some students and outraged look from Stiles. “Anyway” he started, glaring at his companions, “we have divided you in little groups according to your time tables. We will take you to your lessons first, and then we shall have assembly plus lunch.” Stiles looked at them and gave a dramatic stage whisper. “Don’t actually eat the lunch, or you will die. It will kill you. To death.”

Lydia walked up next, and Derek tuned out as she started giving another pep talk about the school and the students, his attention on the other three boys. Jackson was chewing his gum with all the douchebagness he could master at fucking 9 o’clock in the morning, while Scott was visibly jumping out of his skin as he explained him something.

Stiles was the only one of the two entertaining him, laughing at half of the stuff that came out of the boy with fondness. Jackson, and Allison, who was watching them from where she stood next to Lydia, both smiled too at the soft expression on Stiles’ face, and Jackson even inched closer to the boy. Derek was puzzled. He had pegged Stiles as the troublemaker of the group, but right now, he seemed what actually held the group together.

“Paige Deade.” Read Lydia out loud, and Derek snapped out of his thoughts to see the girl walking up to Lydia and standing behind an already formed line. His ex-girlfriend gave him a look, and swiftly Derek looked away.

“Isaac Lahey.” Continued Lydia, and Isaac nodded at his friends and put himself in line with the other students from his school who had history first thing in the morning.

Lydia looked at the next name, and despite her expression not changing, her heart rate suddenly spiked up. Scott and Jackson looked at her in confusion, and Derek did the same. Lydia took a deep breath. “Heather Trainor.” She pronounced.

The effect on the other was immediate and yet subtle, as the blonde girl stepped out of the SCI ranks and joined Lydia’s line. Lydia’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes and she seemed tense. Scott stopped talking and turned to look at her. Allison’s smile disappeared, although she didn’t turn around. Jackson moved even closer to Stiles and put an arm around his shoulders somehow protectively. And Stiles just froze, looking straight at Heather like a deer caught in headlights.

Nobody seemed to notice anything but Boyd and Derek, who exchanged a look with each other.

Lydia put on a fake cheerful expression. “Stiles! You have the maths students today; I’ll take care of the history.” She proposed, and Stiles smiled at her.

“Of course.” He stepped up, everything looking normal, except for the fact that his heart was still racing. “So! Vernon Boyd!” he grinned when Boyd came to stand next to him and gave him a lazy once over. “Erica has good taste.” He told him, and winked, and Boyd looked a step from bolting the fuck away.

The other four only relaxed once Lydia and the history students actually left, Scott going as far as taking a deep breath. “Stiles, bro, you all right?” he asked, and Stiles grinned.

“Course! Derek Hale.” He called, singing the surname. He smirked at Derek. “Cora, Malia or Laura: which is the sister?” he asked, and Derek suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Of course people knew his sisters, there.

“Laura and Cora. Malia is the cousin.” He answered, and Stiles seemed amused.

“Malia and Cora seem more like sisters than cousins.” He said in the end, and then rapidly turned around, continuing calling the rest of the names.

He read Kira’s name last, and winked at her when she joined the group, before turning to Allison with a grin on his face. “Shall we go?” he proposed, and Allison nodded, rolling her eyes when he saluted.

“You better be in class on time.” Muttered Jackson taking his own list.

“Cross my heart and hope to die!” answered Stiles theatrically and fist bumped Scott before walking out.

He grinned at the small group of students behind him. “You have Ms Berry for Maths, she’s like super sweet to everyone except that one guy in junior year, but honestly, kid was nothing but trouble. Hey, Coach!” he waved to his teacher, who gave him a look and disappeared in his classroom. “Coach is pretty weird guy, but don’t let it fool you he absolutely loves me, it’s kinda creepy actually, reminds me of that one time in Freshman Year when after he tried to convince Scott and me that he hated us, he let him off with barely a detention after he turned up to prom- Although I suspect it’s because he was dancing with Danny, and everyone loves Danny…” everyone seemed puzzled by Stiles’ continued chatter, and the boy didn’t seem prone to stop anytime soon. Luckily, he noticed a girl ducking out behind the lockers, phone in her hands.

“Malia Alina Hale!” called Stiles, hands on his hips, and Malia looked up wildly and then pouted.

“Leave me alone, Stilinski!” she shouted back, but the brunette ignored her, walking up to her and putting both hands on her shoulders as he steered her towards the maths classroom.

“Bunking is a no-no, young lady, as I’ve told you before. Look at your cousin Devon being all mature about this, whilst you…” he tutted, while her cousin, Derekcouldn’t help but look annoyed. Stiles literally had his name printed on the fucking paper he had in his hands.

Malia seemed amused more than anything else, and grumbled just a little as she opened the door of the maths class. The teacher, a small woman with dark hair sprayed grey beamed at them as they walked in, and Stiles let go of Malia to go and link arms with her. “Miss Berry! How are you?”

The woman gave him a grandmother smile. “Stiles. Not that it’s not beautiful to see you voluntarily in maths, but don’t you have places to be and people to see?” she teased, and Stiles laughed.

“You know me too well!” he glanced at the rest of the students and grinned. “Now that you are safely in Ms Berry’s hands, you have nothing to worry about! Just follow everybody else after lunch break, where they will hold the assembly, and you’ll get your timetables.” He winked at them. “You will have fun!”

“Do you think we should have waited for Isaac?” asked Boyd, as he and Derek sat down at one of the new tables in the dining hall. He guessed they were new, since they were nicer than all the others table.

The dark-haired werewolf scoffed. His uncle Peter was the Head Teacher of SCI, and between him and Laura sitting at the front with the rest of the student committee and Malia trying to hide in her chair next to Erica, he wasn’t sure he could have stood another second, let alone minute in the room waiting for Isaac.

Which didn’t prove necessary, as Isaac appeared a few second later next to a guy with dark hair and a too innocent to be true expression on his face that Derek recognized as Danny from his maths class. Isaac spotted them and pointed them to the boy, who nodded and departed.

Derek followed him with his eyes, and only then he noticed where he was going to sit.

He had somewhat entertained the idea that the school council was some kind of high rank which made the five of them inaccessible to anyone else. Instead of a supreme table with golden cutlery and high chairs, they were just sitting on table similar to the one he was sitting on himself.

Scott and Allison were sitting next to each other, playfully feeding each other some tiny cut fruit cubes, while Stiles chatted in front of them. Lydia had her phone in her hand, every now butting in to say something to Stiles, while Jackson threw chips from his plate to walking freshmen, Scott and Stiles.

Danny shoved Scott aside, taking a place in front of Jackson with a grin.

Isaac took a sit next to him. “Hello, guys. How was it?” he asked, stealing a handful of chips from Derek’s plate. The werewolf growled at him, but Isaac didn’t bat an eyelid, putting the fries in his mouth.

“Weird.” Supplied Boyd, and Derek couldn’t help but agree. “Your sister.” He added, and Derek looked to see Cora almost sprawled on the table.

Kira Yukimura was sitting on her table with Malia and Erica, and four other sophomores that Derek had become accustomated with: Liam McCall, Hayden Romero and Mason Hewitt, plus one of the boys from SCI, Brett Talbot. Only now he realised that Liam was Scott McCall’s brother.

Derek groaned. “First Malia, then Peter and Laura, now her. I want to go back to SCI.” he complained, and Cora upon hearing him with her werewolf hearing grinned at him.

“Hey, brother!” she called, catching many people’s attention. Derek scowled at her.

Heather and Paige walked in, and Derek made his best impression of a statue and hoped the latter wouldn’t notice him. His attempts were kind of futile, since neither girl seemed interested in him.

Heather walked straight towards the end of the cafeteria, very much aware of the looks of many over thirsty teenagers, and a bright smile on her face. She very deliberately turned to look at Allison’s table, but none of them seemed to have noticed her at all.

Danny seemed oblivious, but from Jackson’s tensed shoulders and Scott’s forced smile, some of them had noticed. Lydia’s lips were pursed, as if she was considering murdering someone, and Derek couldn’t help but be curious about what had happened between the five of them and the blonde girl.

Isaac snapped his fingers in his face. “Ohi, Derek! Paige is looking at you!” he hissed, and sure enough, the brunette was looking at him with intent as she finished off her drink. When she caught his eye, she stared at him and slowly crushed the bottle. Derek flinched, as she threw it straight in the bin. Then she flicked her hair and walked away towards the blonde.

“Fucking hell, what have you done to the girl?” asked Erica, appearing out of nowhere and sliding in the seat next to Boyd. Her boyfriend gave her a dopey smile, and she grinned back.

Derek rolled his eyes. “I did nothing! I broke up with her, and I don’t know why she’s acting like this.” He complained, and Isaac gave him a look.

“You literally wooed her, then broke up with her for your English Teacher, remember Jennifer Blake? AKA Julia Baccari?” Derek winced at the mention of the older woman, who had tried to take him and his virgin blood as human sacrifice. Isaac kept talking. “Then you get back together and you broke up again, and then there was that exiled huntress, Kate Argent, that almost got you too, and failed just because Talia and Laura noticed.” Derek blushed a little, as Isaac continued, unfazed he listed off. “And when you finally get back together again, you break up and you announce that you are in fact gay.”

Erica laughed out loud at this, and Derek threw his pack mate a nasty look. He despised his friends. Boyd arched an eyebrow, as if he could hear Derek’s thoughts and wanted to say no you don’t.

Instead of turning back to either of the three, he noticed Malia staring at where Heather and Paige were sitting, a wolfish grin on her face that meant nothing but trouble. Derek knew that too well, having seen Malia and Cora conspiring together often enough. “What is she doing?” he asked, and the others looked up as well, to see Malia holding a plate with different cake slices and a jug of apple juice in the other as she made her way towards Heather’s table.

By now, Derek wasn’t the only one staring, and even Lydia was looking at Malia with a puzzled expression, as Malia stopped before Heather with a huge smile. “Which one of you is Heather?” she asked, and the dining hall was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. The lunch ladies kept working unaware of what was about to go down in the canteen.

Heather flicked her hair and gave Malia an inquisitive look, while Paige looked between the two in confusion. She smiled. “That’s me, why?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at Malia.

Malia grinned, and it could have been friendly if Derek hadn’t known her so well. She was pissed. “Oh, nothing. Just a message, from BHHS’s seniors. We don’t forget and we don’t forgive.” She told her, and Heather stared at her with an annoyed expression.

“Whatever, I don’t even know you and-” she started, but Malia scoffed.

“Oh, I know you. And one piece of advice? Stay away from him.” She said, fiercely, and Derek’s gaze flicked back towards the table. Lydia was looking at Malia with something akin pride in her expression, and Allison and Scott were unabashedly grinning at the werecoyote. Jackson was looking less douche that this morning, and Stiles seemed suspiciously to have proud tears in his eyes. Danny was filming everything.

Heather rolled her eyes, and stood up, looking at Malia condescending. “If you think that you are-” Derek would never find out what Malia thought she was because the latter interrupted Heather by smashing the entire cake straight into the blonde’s face.

The entire room was eerily silent for a second, as Malia spoke, voice flat. “Welcome back to BHHS, Heather. Don’t forget your drink.” She added, and emptied the jug on her head.

The entire BHHS senior year stood up at once, Erica included, and started clapping their hands. Derek just stared, because his cousin was rad. Lydia and Jackson were both standing and clapping, along with Scott and Allison, while Stiles tried to disappear in his chair, Danny laughing at him.

And then, suddenly, a girl ran into the room, looking frantic. “Malia, Mr Harris is coming!” an everyone sobered up. Because shit, Malia was in trouble.

But apparently, in BHHS snitching was a high form of crime, and no one was going to let Malia, hero of the day, land in detention. Erica stood up, a plate full of fries- his fries, belatedly realised Derek- a look of purpose in her eyes. He saw out of the corner of his eye Lydia, Danny, Allison and Jackson disappearing under the table, and then Stiles and Scott being dragged down too.

She grinned down at him, right as Cora and her chorused. “Food fight!” and dumped the fries on his head.

“Are you seriously not talking to us?” asked him Cora, sat at the front of his car as he drove towards the school.

Erica, who had come all the way to his house just so that she could steal a ride without risking a refusal, grinned. “Mr Grumpy is just sad about the fries; he’ll be all right.” She said, and Derek pointedly ignored her.

He had been giving them the silent treatment since the day before after the huge food fight that had broken up in the dining hall. It was the minimum they could expect after they had forced him and more than half of the school to go in class covered in food and drink. They had all received a lecture from Ms Martin and his uncle, although Malia didn’t get in trouble. Although humiliated, Heather didn’t snitch.

He was still curios about the thing that had happened though, and was immensely glad when Isaac asked. “Why did Malia start that whole thing with Heather, though?”

Erica started smelling like repressed anger. “I’m glad she did it, and I’m surprised Lydia didn’t kill Heather first.” she took a deep breath. “At the beginning of freshman year, Stiles and Scott were friends, but the rest weren’t. Like, Jackson was friends with Lydia, and Allison was the new girl in town immediately best buddies with Lydia too. And then, slowly, Allison and Scott got together, and the five of them started spending more time together. And I am not sure exactly what happened, but in few months they went from hanging around for Allison and Scott’s sake to becoming actual best friends. The day we saw Stiles Stilinski stepping out of his car and linking arms with Jackson Whittemore was the craziest of my entire life. And then came Heather.” She sighed loudly. “Heather was Stiles’ first girlfriend, and honestly, Lydia and Jackson had always hated her. Even Scott didn’t like her, and Scott likes everyone. And of course, they were right. She cheated on Stiles like a month after they started going out, which broke Stiles. Then he started dating this other guy, Theo, and Theo hated Heather. He despised her. And yet, somehow, give it a month or so, Theo too cheated on Stiles.” She grimaced. “With Heather.”

Derek grimaced a little, feeling a little sorry for the poor guy. Cheated on twice, and the same girl that seemed to be at the base of every single one of his problems was back in his school. He would be feeling hella anxious too.

He dropped his friends in front of the school, and went looking for a spot. It took him a few minutes, before he finally found one next to a blue death trap- a blue jeep. Stiles’ jeep.

Derek stepped out at the same time as Stiles and Liam did, the younger one glaring at him. Stiles pointedly ignored his best friend’s brother and smirked up at Derek, who wasn’t sure what to say. Was he even allowed to speak to him? He didn’t know what his social status in the new school was yet. After all, this was High School.

“Derek!” called Liam first, pleasantly surprised, and patted the black Camaro. The werewolf resisted the urge to immediately clean the spot he touched, his eye ticking just a little.

“Morning, Liam. Aren’t you late?” he asked, and Liam glared at Stiles again.

“I am indeed late, because, for some reason, people think it’s smart to let this guy drive me to school. He’s late half of the time, and he makes me late!” he complained aloud, as Stiles sighed, passing him his school back.

“Whatever, Baby Toad.” Said Stiles dismissively, shoving him away.

Liam gave him one last glare, waved at Derek and sprinted inside. Damn, he was fast.

Stiles grinned at him. “Hey, Hale. What lesson do you have? Truanting is a no-no for you too.” He teased, and Derek rolled his eyes at him.

“Shut up.” He said, and almost hit himself in the head. But Stiles merely laughed, so it counted as a win, right? “I have, Econ? Mr Finstock?” he read, and Stiles linked their arms together.

“That’s great, we are together!” he wiggled his eyebrows at him, and dragged him along. “It’s Coach, by the way, do not call him Mr Finstock. He will get mad, and he will force you to join the Lacrosse team the moment he sees you.” He added wisely.

Derek tried to get him off him, but when Stiles didn’t budge, he just sighed and kept walking. “What do you mean when he sees me?” he asked instead, and Stiles gave him a smirk that seemed to be forever etched on his pretty face.

“Well, you are hot, and have the whole I take no shit aura, so…” he explained easily, winking, and Derek didn’t blush, he did not, shut up.

Stiles didn’t seem to notice as he stopped before the open classroom.  “Hullo, Coach, hiya peasants, bow down to the grand king Stilinski!” he called, finally letting go of Derek.

Coach stared at Stiles with a hawk look as the boy entered. "Bilinski! You are late!" He bellowed, and then squinted at Derek. "Were you making out with this new guy?" He asked then.

Derek turned brittle red, but Stiles laughed along with the class. "I wish, Coach." He said, and winked at Derek, causing a couple of wolf whistles from the class. Derek forced himself to not blush, and scowled at Stiles, as he sat to the seat that Isaac had thankfully saved up for him. Which turned out to be the seat behind Stiles.

Coach scowled. "Then you don't have a reason to be late, Bilinski!" He half shouted.

Stiles shrugged. "I was picking up Liam, sir. If I hadn't, he would not have come to lacrosse at all, and you don't want to lose any more players, do you?" He asked, and Coach pursed his lips.

"You have a point." He turned his attention to Derek. "You. What is your name?" He asked, and Derek felt everyone's eyes on him.

"Derek Hale, sir." He said, and Coach eyebrow's twitched in hope.

"Ah, Cora and Ms Hale or Malia?" Did everyone in the school know them? Derek made to answer, but Coach cut him off immediately. "Doesn't matter, because they are all incredible women." Derek couldn't help but agree. "You'll make a fine lacrosse player." He said in the end, and Derek heard Jackson, sitting in front of Isaac, huff a laugh at that.

He ignored him. "I don't play lacrosse, sir." He said, and Coach looked at him like he announced he didn't breathe oxygen and drink water.

"And what do you play?" He asked, almost daring him to answer.

Derek squirmed in his seat. "I play basketball?" He said, and immediately winced at the derisory laugh from the teacher.

"I don't know, do you?" drawled the teacher, and Jackson laughed, while Stiles smirked at him.

Derek glared. "I am captain of the basketball team of SCI." He informed them, and Coach looked at Jackson wonderingly.

“Do we have a basketball team?" He asked.

Jackson shrugged. "I don't know. Do we?" He asked back, and Stiles threw a highlighter at him.

"Aren't you head of all Sports?" asked him the brunette sarcastically, and Jackson shrugged again.

Lydia, who sat behind Isaac with Scott cleared her throat. "We do, incidentally. It's captained by Greenburg and supervised by Mr Harris." She informed them with a small smirk, and Coach bursted out laughing.

Jackson looked at Derek with a smirk. "Looks to me that you will fit right in."  He said dryly, and Lydia gave a tiny snort as the rest of the class laughed.

Stiles turned around to face him, a full shit eating grin on his mouth. "Good luck. You will clearly need it." He whispered, before Coach ordered them all silence.

The rest of the day passed in relative calm, up until after lunch.  Apparently, as the Head Teachers had explained (Fuck you, Peter), all try-outs for all school clubs were taking place at the moment, and most captains weren't happy. Jackson? Jackson was furious, Derek noted.

The blue eyed boy stormed past them, looking livid, lacrosse kit in a hand, as Scott ran after him. The brunette kept stopping to apologize to anyone who had the misfortune of being on Jackson’s way, and how could you even stay mad at Scott? Lydia stared at where they both disappeared with a slight scowl on her face. "Boys and their sports." She sighed, and Cora, not too far away, laughed. Derek nodded at Boyd and Isaac as the trio finally made their way towards the changing rooms.

The changing rooms were packed, full of people wearing the most different outfits. Jackson put on his lacrosse kit and disappeared outside still boiling, but both Danny and Scott took their sweet time getting ready. Isaac had the lacrosse try-out kit on, and Derek wished him good luck before both him and Boyd left for the Basketball group.

Most of the team from SCI was there plus about six other students from BHHS. The teacher regarded them all with a look of disdain and gave a long suffering sigh, as if having to watch them was a physical torture. Greenburg, who had introduced himself after Econ, gave a look at Derek, jealousy in his eyes and his scent. Boyd rolled his eyes as the boy practically sneered. "Go and get the ball, Hale." He ordered, and Mr Harris just returned to his book.

There wasn't much Derek could do, although some of his teammates seemed to be considering jumping Greenburg. He took a sigh and slowly made his way towards where he had spotted the sport tools room. Scott was already out there in his kit and getting the others ready while Coach kept blowing his whistle for no apparent reason. None of the older BHHS students seemed to take notice, probably used to it. Jackson wasn't anywhere to be seen, probably having thrown a fit and bitched until Coach let him go away. He stepped inside the room and looked around for the basketball.

“How you feelin?” Called a voice, making Derek freeze in his track. He vaguely recognized the voice, but couldn't outright place it. A low growl sounded in the room, almost animalistic, quickly turning into a whine and Derek looked around with a perplexed look on his face. "Good, uh?" Asked the same voice again. Derek frowned, not entirely sure of what was going on, although an alarm bell was going in his head. He looked around, and saw a basketball not too far away, and reached out for it and grabbed it. He turned to leave, but then froze in his tracks.

A guy was standing with his back to Derek, his ass out in the air and his trousers at his ankles. Somewhere in his head Derek recognized him as Jackson, but the boy on his knees in front of the boy, Derek recognized him immediately. His tongue was obscenely licking the tip of Jackson's dick, his hands fondling with his balls. Derek wanted to disappear, but then slowly, Stiles' eyes went from Jackson's face to Derek.

He seemed to freeze for a second, his heartbeat not skipping. Then he smirked, and held eye contact with Derek and deep throated Jackson in one go. And Jackson gave another one of those animal like growls, hands in Stiles' hair. Derek unfroze somehow because, holy shit, that was Stiles, and that was Jackson, and Stiles was giving Jackson a blowjob and what the fuck he needed to get out of there immediately. He grabbed the ball and departed from the room in a nanosecond flat.

When he came back, Boyd gave him a look at his skyrocket speed heartbeat, but Derek ignored him. Harris gave another pained sigh, and why was he a fucking teacher if he fucking hated students so much, and fuck he couldn’t stop cursing in his head. "So, two of you are captains, right?" He asked, and Derek and Greenburg both stepped forward.

Greenburg sneered again, and again Derek ignored him, choosing to act maturely. Harris gave the rest a look. "Who do you want as your Captain?" He asked them. The SCI students vastly outnumbered the BHHS ones, and even with that, five BHHS voted for Derek. Greenburg voted for himself, pathetically enough, and Derek abstained from voting. He gave the ex-captain a sneer, because okay, he wasn't mature.

They were just about to get started when Stiles and Jackson stepped out. The latter seemed more relaxed than before, although he threw a nasty scowl at Derek, while Stiles gave him a cheeky grin. Derek promptly turned away, mortification rolling off him. It was a long practice.

The first thing he did once finished with practice was running away from Boyd and the rest, changing clothes in about 2 minutes flat. He was going to shower at home.  As he left the changing rooms without as much as a bye in Boyd’s direction, he noticed a laughing Stiles looking after him, and how the fuck was he so chill, Derek was going to have nightmares about this.

Cora was waiting by the car when he showed up, and wrinkled her nose when she saw him. Then she noticed his face and she turned immediately in Concerned Female Hale. “Der? You okay? What happened?” she asked, climbing in her car.

Finally, Derek paused and gave her one long look. He gulped. “I… I saw Stiles giving Jackson a blowjob.” He confessed, and Cora stared at him.

She started laughing. “Oh my god, Derek! Oh god! I would be surprised if you didn’t see them screwing around once or twice!” Derek glanced at her displeased, wondering what exactly had his sister witnessed, in the school. But STILL!

“Cora, I am scarred for life.” He told her, and his sister snorted.

“You are a fucking drama queen.”

“He’s a Hale, runs in the blood.” Announced Isaac, jumping in the backseat with Boyd.

The dark werewolf looked at him. “Are you okay, Derek?” he asked, concerned, and Derek felt a little sorry. Maybe he had overreacted.

Cora grinned and looked back at them. “Derek saw Stiles giving Jackson and blowjob.”

Boyd’s eyes widened in fear, and he dropped a hand on Derek’s shoulder in support. Isaac whistled. “Stilinski and Whittemore? No way!” he stayed quiet for a second. “That’s hot.” He said evenly and Cora high fived him.

Derek just sighed, and started the car.

Derek entered the chemistry class, with Boyd in tow. Isaac, the little shit, probably had already known about the huge traffic that morning, because he was already sat when the two wolves came in, greeted by silence.

Derek turned to the teacher, and almost groaned when he saw that it was Mr Harris. The teacher from the basketball training who seemed to hate students. He started to hastily apologize. “Sorry for being late, sir, there was a traffic…” he trailed off at the teacher’s icy look.

The man looked at both of them and then raised his hands to clap politely at them. “Great performance. Now please take a sit. You will pay for the precious minutes you made everyone lose by sitting an hour out at the end of the lesson.”

Nobody laughed, and some students gave them sympathetic looks as they finally sat down next to Isaac at his lab table. The teacher started speaking again, and Derek took the time to see who he was in class with. He noticed Paige sitting at the front next to two other students from SCI. Malia was in the class too, sitting not too far from them with Kira Yukimura. The two seemed to have become fast friends.

Behind him sat Scott McCall, Jackson Whittemore, Stiles Stilinski and Danny Mahealani. Scott caught his eye and smiled at him, while Jackson just stared at him blankly, as if he wasn’t entirely sure who Derek was. Rude.

The lesson continued and finished without any other interruption, but before they could walk out of the classroom, Scott appeared at their table, the other three hanging behind him. Stiles was busy chatting to Malia who had reached them, while Jackson and Danny exchanged notes about a certain English project. The boy smiled at Isaac. “Hey, Isaac Lahey, right?” he asked.

Isaac looked at him in suspicion. “Yeah. Hi?” he answered, and Scott beamed.

“You were great yesterday! Like, you are strong, but dude, you were incredible out there, you have the coordination and even Jackson was impressed! Your performance was amazing!” he said, visibly excited.

Jackson turned to look at Scott with a frown. “I wasn’t impressed by anyone. You are passable.” He shrugged in Isaac’s direction, and Scott rolled his eye.

Stiles turned and looked straight at Derek with a grin. “I am always impressed by Jackson’s performances all right.” He drawled with a wink, and Stiles needed to be immersed in a bath of holy water and left there for three days, because what the fuck.

Scott wrinkled his nose at him. “Dude! Gross.” He answered, but both Jackson and Danny seemed amused by this. Scott turned his attention to Isaac. “But anyway, you were one of the best out there, so you are on the team 100%.” He told him, and Isaac’s face broke into a genuine smile.

“Really?” he asked, beaming.

Jackson gave him an indulging smirk. “Yeah. On the team, which is a huge honour etcetera.” Derek had never heard someone say etcetera in real life, god, Jackson was so posh. “Coach wants us to start training today as well, so I’ll see you on the field later. Let’s see how good you are against Liam and the rest of BHHS’s team.” He added, and then walked off.

Danny gave him a genuine smile. “He is blatantly lying. He couldn’t stop going on about you yesterday after you left and he kept saying that you were, I quote, a natural talent.”

“Gets one to know one.” Added Stiles, winking at Derek again before linking arms with Malia and Scott. The werewolf scowled at him, and Stiles’ grin grew wider. “Bye bye, Scarfy, Baddy and Sourwolf!” he ended, walking off, Danny chuckling behind him with Scott.

Boyd looked at Derek with a frown. “Baddy?” he asked, sounding amused, and Isaac gave him a deadpan look.

“I wonder what did Malia and Erica tell him about you.” Which caused a horrified expression crossing his face. Worth it. 

After finishing their detention, Boyd and Derek went to wait for Isaac. The lacrosse team was sweating on the field, and not too far away, the football team was giving their hardest. He found himself recognizing some of the faces.

His sister, Cora, was captain of the female football team, and Malia, Kira and Hayden were all on the team. She waved when she saw him, and Derek waved back, feeling a rush of pride for his baby sister.

Isaac was running around with the lacrosse team, looking eager and confident in a way he hadn’t seemed on SCI’s lacrosse team. Which kinda made sense, since SCI’s lacrosse team sucked asses. The only thing they were good in was Basketball, and that was because of Derek. Isaac and Brett Talbot were the only students from SCI’s to have made it on the team.

Stiles was jumping around in a cheerleader outfit that looked ridiculously good on him, especially the way his shorts emphasised the shape of his ass. Derek wasn’t blind, Stiles was hot. Hot, nasty and very much taken, if what he saw was anything to go by.

He was surprised when he saw Corey Bryant, Tracy Stewart and Aiden Carver from his school on the team. It was made out of an equal number of girls and boys, which was also unusual for him. He knew that cheerleading wasn’t only for girls, but he had expected the team to be majority girls. Well, Stiles was the captain of the team, so…

Erica, who was on the team, landed on her feet after making a back flip, and waved at them with a smile, before focusing back on Stiles. The boy made a simple cartwheel and jumped, landing with his hands on top of Erica, and then launching himself up again. He was strangely graceful: strangely because Derek had half expected him to be a disaster from the way he saw him flailing all around the school.

The stands were almost empty, except for the two of them and a few other BHHS students, among which Lydia and Allison stood out. The red head was wrapped in a black coat and was looking expectantly at the football team, while Allison cheered for the lacrosse one.

The brunette jumped up when Scott and Isaac managed to get a throw past Jackson and straight into the net. “Yes, Scotty!” she cheered, and Boyd winced at her shout. Lydia was too busy staring at the football team to give a damn about the noise.

Instead of being angry, Jackson seemed pleased as he approached Isaac. The blonde stiffened, anticipating, from years and years of humiliation and abuse, some kind of mockery from the blue eyed boy. Instead Jackson gave him a nod. “You have a great technique, Lahey, but…” he straightened him up and fixed the helmet on his head. “You have a tell. Whenever you are about to go in for a throw, you do that thing with your legs and arms. Try to avoid it.” He told him, straightforwardly. He patted him on the head and ran off towards where Stiles was.

Derek noticed that the brunette was now slowly teaching both Aiden and Corey how to be more lose with their bodies, while Erica taught the rest of the newbies simple stuff like cartwheeling. Jackson stopped behind him and nudged him with his shoulder. “Me and Scott are done for the day, you get Lydia afterwards?” he asked him, an eyebrow raised.

Stiles looked up towards the stand, and Derek felt his gaze passing over him before it located the red head. He let out a groan. “Sure, if she is planning in ever leaving the stands.” He said in the end.

The lacrosse captain tolled his eyes, and promptly ran off again, joining Danny on the field. Boyd was already making his way down the stairs, to congratulate Isaac and tell Erica that they were about to leave, but before Derek could follow him, a figure appeared in front of him.

Allison smiled at him, nervously, as she fixed the scarf around her neck. “Derek, hi.” She started, hands clasped in her lap.

Derek looked at her a little worried: he didn’t think he had done anything that caused the ire of the president of the school council, had he? As if reading his thoughts, Allison gave a lighter smile. “Hey, no, you’re fine! You haven’t done anything wrong, I was just…” she took a deep breath. “I wanted to apologize.” She said in the end, evenly.

Derek was even more confused. They had been in school for altogether a few weeks, and he and Allison had spoken maybe twice in English class. Allison continued. “I wanted to apologize in behalf of my family about my Aunt.” She said in the end, and Derek’s heart skipped a beat.

He knew that Allison and Kate were somehow related (Argent wasn’t a common surname in Beacon Hills) but he had never thought that they were so closely related. This made Chris, the hunter who very much knew about werewolves, her father. Did she know about werewolves?

Allison continued talking. “I’m sorry about her trying to burn down your house because you broke up with her, and I already apologized to Cora and Malia when they joined the school. But you were more involved with her than anyone else so I wanted to apologize properly to you.” She explained, and the werewolf relaxed.

She didn’t know about werewolves; she just knew the story that everyone else in town had spread around. He was surprised that her father hadn’t told her, but again, Chris wanted to have nothing more regarding werewolf hunting after a huge thing that had happened a few years before regarding a kanima and his father, Gerard.

“It’s okay. It’s gone now.” He said curtly in the end, and Allison’s face broke in a smile.

Then she leant in. “Just so you know, my brother is a little shit, but he doesn’t mean any harm. He told me you walked in on him and Jackie yesterday.” She grinned at his horrified expression and then waved. “Gotta go! See you around, Derek!” she called, running down the stairs.

Derek stared at her running away in almost shock. Stiles? And Allison? Were? Brother? And sister? Sure, he knew that the Sheriff had recently got married, and he knew that the Argents had one adopted daughter before Victoria Argent died, but…

Allison Argent and Stiles Stilinski were brother and sister.

“Ohi, Derek! Come on!” called Isaac, and the werewolf shook his head, shoving those thoughts away for the moment. Surely, it didn’t matter, did it?

Derek cautiously sniffed the air, looking for Allison Argent’s scent. He knew that in theory it was Jackson he should be speaking to, but he would rather play dumb and have her speaking to him than having to do it himself. He had easily realised that Mr Harris did not give a damn about the basketball team in general and was not going to be scheduling matches and all that.

Derek, however, was very much aware of the fact that the team was now as ready as they could possibly be. It had been almost a month since the start of the school year, they needed a match so they could prove themselves!

Hence way he needed one of them to speak to. Stiles had become slightly more bearable and even kind of apologized about the whole walking in thing. Kind of. Scott was just puppy in general, Lydia was still scary, Jackson was still a douchebag and Allison was still sweet.

The door opened, and Derek was hit with the brunette’s scent mixed with a hug of strawberry. He turned around to go and speak to her before she walked away, but instead went straight against someone else, knocking the pot plants that someone was holding off.

He caught them just in time, a bit of the purple flowers hitting the floor anyway, and turned to give Allison an apologetic look. Instead, he was facing a very annoyed Lydia Martin who had Allison’s scarf wrapped around her neck.

Derek scrambled to hand her the pots, feeling the tip of his ears turning red. “I am so sorry, I didn’t…” he stopped talking at the look she gave him and swallowed, taking the pot off his hands. One of the flowers had fallen on the floor and Derek reached out to grab it.

He touched the plant and immediately let it go, hissing in pain. Only then he picked up the scent of the purple flower: wolf bane. Lydia’s eyes turned wide, and she immediately took the flowers, Derek rocking his head for an explanation.

She gave him a look that was too innocent to be true. “Allergic to wolf bane?” she asked, without looking at him in the eye.

The werewolf looked at her for a second. Lydia knew. He could see it in the way she had scrambled to take the plant out of his hands so quickly, and yet… she was offering him an escape route. She knew that she could kill him off very quickly right now, with all the wolf bane that she had with her, but she held it at distance from him and was offering him an escape. Derek stood up slowly. “Yeah.” He muttered, and Lydia looked back at him, glacial.

“Is there something you wanted to talk to me about? School finished about an hour ago.” She commented, and Derek nodded.

“Yeah, right. I was looking for Allison.” He said in the end, and couldn’t help but think that maybe Allison might know more than she let on. Did that make Stiles a hunter too? He was the Sheriff’s son, but…

Lydia crossed her arms over her chest, and although she was very much shorter than him, she seemed suddenly taller. “You can ask me.” She said evenly.

Derek swallowed. “Uhm, about the basketball team. We wanted to say that since Mr Harris doesn’t really care about organizing matches and stuff, that we could do it on our own? Schedule matches? I used to do it, back in SCI.” he said in the end, and Lydia nodded.

“You have the greenlight. If you need anything, don’t bother Allison, just ask Jackson.” She pursed her lips in thought. “Or Stiles.” She waved him off. “You can go, now.”

Derek resisted the urge to salute, and immediately made his way out. He quickly drove bac towards his house, and stopped only once he got there, pulling over next to what he assumed was Deaton’s car. The local vet who was also part time emissary for the Hale Pack.

But before he could even open or knock at the door, Erica Reyes opened, closely followed behind by Stiles Stilinski, and tackled him on the ground. The werewolf stared perplexedly at them, as Stiles touched her lightly on the shoulder. “IT!” he shouted, and ran off again.

Before Erica could even make a move to follow him, Derek stopped her. “What is going on?” he asked, and the blonde wolf rolled her eyes at him.

“Liam, Mason, Brett, Hayden and Cora have been paired up together for a project, and they are doing it here. Stiles tagged along because of Liam, and because he needs a lift to Scott’s house afterwards.” She explained, and Derek was even more confused.

“Liam has a car?” he inquired, and Erica laughed at that.

“No! But his dad does.” At his confused expression she pointed at Deaton’s car. “Step-dad. He married Melissa McCall.” She clarified, and ran off to where she had seen Malia and Isaac hiding. Derek remained on the ground, contemplating the entire thing.

Stiles Stilinski and Allison Argent were, according to Cora, twins. They had both been born when Claudia was about 18 and given up for adoption. Sheriff Stilinski had adopted Stiles a few years later, after Claudia had managed to track down one of her kids. Argent had taken his biological daughter in custody and married Victoria Argent. Then both mothers had died, and Chris found out about Stiles. Him and the Sheriff got married, and Allison and Stiles found each other.

Stiles had a best friend named Scott McCall. His mother was Melissa McCall, and she was in an abusive relationship with Raphael Whatever. When Scott was barely two, she got pregnant again with Liam, and broke up with her husband. Derek was barely four when Alan Deaton had gotten married again with a certain Melissa, so he couldn’t possibly remember her.

Lydia’s parents were divorced, Jackson’s real parents were dead, Malia’s mother was a psycho who had caused Malia to turn into a coyote for 8 years, Stiles’ adoptive dad was married with his and Allison’s biological dad and found out that they were long lost twins, Scott’s dad was an emissary for a werewolf pack. He stared up in the sky. “So who is gossip girl?” he wondered aloud, causing a snort from the house.

The werewolf looked up to see Laura standing there with her young daughter in her hands. Right. Laura married Jordan Parrish, who turned out to be ex-soldier Camden Lahey, and had a daughter with him named Camila Lahey. Who was also Isaac’s niece. “I think Peter is gossip girl.” Announced his older sister, and now it was Derek who snorted, before making grabby hands at Camila.

Derek, Camila and Laura walked to find his mother and Deaton almost at the door. The Alpha gave a small wave at Camila. “Ehilà, bimba.” She said, falling into Italian without noticing.

Camila answered with flashing her eyes and growling at her. “Rawr, gramma!” She said, and Laura patted her on the head.

“Great job, zuccherino, but not in front of our guests. They don’t know about us.” She reminded her, and Camila pouted.

“Sorry, mama.” She suddenly perked up and turned towards the door. “Stiles!” She called, as the boy ran inside, breathing hard.

“Erica is a cheating cheater who cheats.” He announced, then winked at Laura’s daughter. “Blondie, c'meree!” He ordered, and Camila held up her arms demanding him to hold her in his hands. Stiles obliged and kissed her cheek, before turning to Talia. “Hello, Mama Hale, Big D.” He greeted them both and Deaton rolled his eyes, while Laura looked at him scandalized.

Talia just flicked him on the nose. “Stiles. How are your dads?” She asked him and Stiles held up a thumb.

“They both need to chill, they are always at the station one, and in his office the second.” He told them, and Talia gave him a sympathetic squeeze.

“You know you are always welcome to come to our house to have dinner or anything.” She assured him, and Stiles shrugged.

“I’m mostly good, I have Thing One- I mean Ally.”

Deaton handed Stiles the car keys with an arched eyebrow at Talia. “Plus, between him, Allison and Scott they are mostly at my house anyway.” He said with a smile.

Derek might have imagined it, but it seemed like there was something going on between Alan and his mother, something more than wanting to care for Stiles. He knew for a fact that Stiles’ mother had been friends with his before and that they went back a long way, like High School. His mother had been older but they had been friends for some reason that he didn’t know. 

Stiles fixed the baby in his arms and took the keys. “I leave the car in the driveway?” He asked, and Deaton nodded.

“No drive in or anything that can get it dirty. You know Liam is an awful liar anyway.” Warned the man, and Stiles stuck out his tongue.

“Whatever old man. Vamos, Millie.” He said then, kissing Camila’s cheek and walked off towards the living room like he owned the place.

Talia nodded at both Derek and Laura. “The house is in your hands: you’ve got 5 teenagers to make sure won’t get in a fight over something.” She ordered, and Laura saluted, like the child she was inside. His mother kissed his cheek and then her and Deaton left.

Laura grinned at him. “Awh, Der-bear.”

Derek ignored her and looked at her in confusion. “Does Stiles come here often?” He asked, confused.

Laura shrugged. “He used to be around much more before he started High School. Well, you went to complete different schools, so it’s not like you really saw him, I guess. I see him often enough, with Jordan being a deputy and all that. But yeah, he used to come with his mother, then alone. Allison came like twice, but then stopped. Mostly it’s him alone, or him and Lydia. Scott has been here once, and it was only because Cora was grounded, last year.” She explained easily.

“Laura, get the coco pops!” Ordered Stiles, and Camila giggled. “Yes, mama, cereals!” She added, and Laura rolled her eyes.

“And as you can see, Stiles is very comfortable.” Her and her brother walked back in the living room together, to see Stiles sprawled on the couch, shoes off somewhere and Camila sitting attentively on him, both their eyes trained on the show on the TV.

Derek arched an eyebrow, remembering Cora being vaguely obsessed about that show with four demon fighters- one of them gay af- a bisexual warlock, a baby vampire in love with his vampire daddy and a werewolf. There was drama about the main couple being brother and sister or something at the moment, and their father being a mass murderer while their mother was in a coma. Dark Hunters? 

Laura grabbed the remote and turned it back to a new episode of an anime called Uninhabited Planet Survive. “Inappropriate.” She sentenced, when Stiles made a noise of protest. Derek eyed the place where Stiles had put his feet with a scowl.

“Are you comfortable? Because that’s my spot.” He told him and Stiles gave him a smile.

“Sit on my lap.” He advised, and laughed at Derek’s deadpan expression. Finally the brunette moved his feet, just enough for Derek to take a sit, before putting them back on his lap.

Derek glared at him, but Stiles just turned back to Laura. “So, Mrs Parrish.” He started, and the girl smiled dopily at the name. Derek shuddered. “How are the Juniors, this year? I bet you miss me and Lydia.” He added, and the female wolf just rolled her eyes.

“Sure thing, I miss your annoying know-it-all selves.” She said with no inflection, and Stiles glanced down at Camila.

“Have you heard your mother? She said a mean thing to me!” he gasped, faking a sob.

Camila held a protective arm on Stiles’ head. “No! Bad mama.” She complained, and Stiles wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“Who do you like better?” asked the brunette, and Camila gave him the smile she had so inherited from Cora, somehow.

“Derek.” She announced, scrambling away from Stiles into her Uncle’s lap. Stiles gasped, and the girl broke into fits of giggles, while Derek looked at Stiles with a superior look.

Laura chuckled, handing Stiles the cereals, and the boy accepted them with a low grumble. A few minutes later, Erica and Malia walked back in, and the werecoyote smiled at Stiles and sat down in front of the couch.

A few minutes into a movie that Derek was suspecting was a werewolf cartoon, Malia and Stiles quietly slipped out of the room, probably thinking they had gone unnoticed. Derek didn’t even have to try, he could perfectly hear them giggling from the kitchen, and whispering to each other like school children.

Were they even still together? He couldn't say he wasn't somewhat interested in the mess that seemed to be Stiles' entire life.

He was saved from further speculation as a sound of people crashing on the ground resonated from upstairs. "Liam, what is it?!" half shouted Hayden from upstairs, quickly followed by "Liam! Wait, Liam!" from Cora and Brett. Derek and Laura glanced at each other and hurried upstairs, right in time to see Liam throwing Brett away from him and locking himself in the bathroom. A few moments later Mason, Hayden, Brett and Cora stared at the bathroom door in consternation.

Laura handed a sleeping Camila to Derek and faced her sister and her friends. "Cora. What happened?" she asked, hands on her hips.

Cora looked helplessly at her friends. "I don't know! One minute we were all talking and laughing and messing around with each other, the next Liam was throwing Mason off him super angry and looked ready to bite off my head. And then he ran out to the bathroom." she explained, trying to catch her thoughts.

Laura, hearing no lie in Cora's heartbeat, frowned and knocked at the door gently. "Liam? It's me, Laura. Are you okay?" she asked.

He smelled miserable and angry at the same time. "Leave me alone!" he yelled at the werewolf, and Derek saw the strength it took Laura not to barge into the bathroom and scold him about respect and such.

Hayden came closer to the door. "Liam, are you okay? What's happening?" she asked, nervous.

Liam stayed quiet for a second. "Hayden?" he asked, sounding petrified. "Go away! Just leave me alone, for once!" he shouted, and the girl flinched.

Laura seemed pissed. "Liam, don't talk to your girlfriend like that, she did nothing! She's just concerned!" she called, and Liam seemed only to get angrier from her words.

"Then she should stop getting involved! Can't you leave me alone?!" he asked, and Derek could have sworn he could hear him gritting his teeth.

"What's going on, here?" asked a voice, and Derek turned around to see Malia and Stiles standing no too far with ice cream cups in their hands.

Mason turned to Stiles. "Thank god. Liam is throwing a fit in the bathroom." he dutifully told him, and Stiles narrowed his eyes at this.

"Why?" he pondered, and everyone just shrugged. The boy took a sigh and handed his ice cream to Mason before walking towards the door. He knocked at the door. "Liam? It's me, Stiles. Open the door?" he asked. For a few moments, Derek was sure that Liam wouldn't even bother answering him. From what he had seen of the two, they weren't exactly best buddies, more like they tolerated each other for mutual benefits.

Instead, Liam unlocked the door and gave a sigh. "Only you?" he made him promise, and Stiles sounded almost fond when he agreed. "Sure buddy. Can I come in?" in answer, Liam opened the door wide enough for Stiles to enter and no one else, and the brunette stepped in the room. "What is it, Liam?" they heard Stiles asking, and then someone turned the tap on, making it impossible for anyone else to distinguish the words exchanged.

Laura turned to the little group outside. "How about we all leave them to be?" she asked, and Derek nodded, handing Camila back to her. With a lot of grumbling, Mason, Brett, Hayden and Cora went back to Cora's room while the other Hales went back downstairs.

It was at least five minutes later before Stiles and Liam appeared downstairs. Liam's eyes were red with tears and he avoided looking at anyone, choosing to hide in Stiles' shadow instead.

Derek could picture in his head Cora and the rest trying to listen in to the conversation going on. Or Cora and Brett trying to smell it, probably. Liam was standing behind Stiles smelling in equal parts annoyed, upset, protective and in need of protection. Stiles gave them a small smirk. "Liam has IED. It's better if I just take him home now." He explained.

Laura seemed about to say something but decided against it. Instead she gave Liam a wave. "See you tomorrow at school?" She asked instead, and Liam nodded after a nudge from Stiles.

The brunette sent a kiss in Malia's direction, to which the werecoyote rolled her eyes, and winked at Derek. "See you too at school, Sourwolf." Derek ignored him, and with a last kiss on top of Camila's head and a salute to "Mrs Parrish", he left the house.

Once the car left, Cora and her friends finally came downstairs, looking gloomy. Hayden looked like she wanted to punch something, possibly a Liam shaped something, while Mason just seemed annoyed at having lost his ride home with an almost melted ice cream in his hand. Laura turned to Brett and Cora. "Any idea as to what triggered him?" she asked, and Brett shrugged, but he looked miffed at Liam's sudden departure.

"No clue. He seemed okay a few moments and he's got Hayden pinned down and Cora has me pinned down, and he's suddenly angrily shoving everyone and leaving. I blame puberty." he said in the end, causing a laugh out of the remaining Hales.

Hayden was still upset. "We will finish at home separately. I'm going home." she announced, and stomped out, Mason running after her to hitch a drive home.

Brett turned to the remaining Hales with a shrug. “So… I heard there was ice cream?”

Derek and Erica were standing outside the chemistry classroom when Malia finally appeared, deep in conversation with Scott, Stiles and Jackson. The werecoyote seemed completely at ease with them, and not for the first time, he wondered what exactly was her post in the school council.

“Is Malia dating any of them?” he asked Erica, when the foursome disappeared in class without noticing them.

Erica shook her head. “She used to date Stiles back in Junior Year. Well, dating is a big word. I guess hooking up with exclusivity for a month is more like it.” She shrugged. “But yeah, they kind of took her under their wing when she started the school, especially Lydia and Allison.”

Derek froze at the mention of the two girls. So, when Malia had come still almost completely feral and very much not human like, the two who most likely knew about the supernatural took her under their wing. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with this, since if they had known since Junior year they could have killed like a hundred times or exposed her, but they never did. What were they after?

Erica continued, oblivious. “And she just became best buddies with them, she’s like their little mascot, although she doesn’t know that. They helped her adapt and stuff.”

Isaac and Boyd arrived then, and they all went in class together. Mr Harris seemed in a less gloomy mood than usual and let them conduct their own experiments in two big groups, which meant that Jackson, Danny, Stiles and Scott were in group with Isaac, Boyd and Derek.

Jackson gave a rueful sigh and glanced at them. "I hope you know something of chemistry. I'm not losing my grade for you." He said in the end, and Danny rolled his eyes.

"Ignore him." He advised, while Stiles reappeared at their table with lab equipment in his hands.

"Danny, we are not losing to Allison and Lydia this time or so help me god."

Neither of the girls in question was in the classroom and Scott smiled at Derek and Isaac’s confusion. "It's timed. Ally and Lyds are the top in the other chemistry class and Stiles is trying to beat them." He explained, doodling on his paper.

Boyd glanced down at Danny. "If you mix the solvent anti clockwise it works faster." He told him, and both Danny and Stiles looked surprised.

Stiles was the first to recover with a grin. "Come here, Baddy, you have to help." He instructed, handing him the pipette.

Jackson was writing down in neat calligraphy step by step, and Derek and Isaac decided to imitate him. "Lahey." Called Jackson sharply and the blonde looked up at him waiting. "Friday there is no lacrosse training. Lydia is throwing a party and the lacrosse team is as per usual always invited." He informed him and Scott looked up with a confused expression.

"Everyone is invited, Jackson." He countered and the blue eyed rolled his eyes.

"Everyone is invited except those who aren't. You don't really expect freshmen at the party? Or fucking Heather?" He chastised and Scott opened his mouth comically wide before nodding in understanding. Jackson gave a pained sigh before turning to Isaac. "Show up and you better look good if you want to stay on the team." He warned and Stiles snorted.

"You'll scare him off." He complained.

Jackson grinned. "Good." He said, satisfied and Danny winked at Isaac.

"Don't worry, it's very chill. At least until we start playing the drunken version of Truth or Dare. Then shit usually gets messy." He reminisced, and Stiles dropped a few millilitres of liquid before looking at Danny.

"Remember when me and Allison threw that party at Christmas last year and Jackson found himself sleeping stark naked with my dad trying and failing to wake him up? And when he woke up he threw up on the Sherriff’s polished shoes?" He asked, and Jackson groaned, blushing.

Danny snorted. "Best day of my life." He commented, and Jackson scoffed.

"I don't even know what the fuck Ally and Lyds put in that shit to this day. All I know is that it was strong."

Scott nodded sympathetically. "Worst hangover of my life." He added and Boyd added a few drops of solvents in the mix.

"Tell that to Lydia." Dared him Stiles and Scott shook his head.

"Oh no, I like my balls where they are." He said causing a laugh out of Danny.

"And so does Allison." Chorused him and Stiles and high fived each other. Scott groaned, but Isaac just outright laughed. Derek exchanged a look with Boyd and they both rolled their eyes and went back to their work.

+

They did win against Lydia and Allison's group. Which was why Derek feared for his life when he was cornered by Lydia and Malia right before his next lesson. The red head glared and stopped in front of him. Derek sent a prayer up to sky and hoped Malia would return his body to his mother. "Where is your sister Cora?" Asked Lydia instead and Derek frowned.

This seemed easier to answer. "I don't know, she was consoling Hayden before." He answered, darting a look at his cousin who was tapping on her phone with a blush on her face. Investigate.

Lydia nodded. "Tell her that she should come to my party." She seemed to consider him for a second. "And of course, since Erica is bringing Boyd, and Isaac is already coming, feel free to tag along." She pronounced, sounding like she was being incredibly generous and kind for allowing him to come.

Derek hastily nodded and Lydia walked off. He turned to Malia. "She's terrifying."

He decided, and Malia nodded. "You have no idea."

Erica knocked impatiently at Derek's door, fixing her hair bun. "Are you guys ready yet? I am the girl and I've been ready since last year!" She complained.

Cora sniffed in her tissue and rolled her red eyes. "Be grateful that you get to go, at least." She said miserably.

The blonde grinned at her. "If you miraculously get rid of your cold then you can definitely come." She shrugged and Cora gave another sigh.

"For once I was literally invited by Lydia! It was my big chance..." She complained, walking slowly towards her bedroom to sulk and brood for the night. It did suck. Almost everyone, including Camila was either going trick or treating or going to a party and poor Cora was confined in her house. Poor baby.

Malia had gone ahead of her since Allison and Stiles were going mad under Lydia's reign, making Erica the only girl of their little congregation. Finally, the door opened and a dark skinned Frankenstein, a mummy and Danny Zuko from Grease stepped out of the room. Erica gave Frankenstein a look. "We are nowhere near matching." She commented, but her Marie Antoinette costume wasn't completely clashing with his.

The mummy huffed. "Yadda yadda whatever, we are going to be late." He complained, and the Danny Zuko gave him an incredulous look.

"And who's fault is that, Isaac, you over eager 'I need to be completed covered in toilet roll because I'm a real piece of shit-pardon, mummy'".

Erica and Boyd laughed, while Isaac gave him a stink eye and pushed him. "Whatever. Let’s go."

+

Lydia opened the door at the first doorbell ring, her attire working hella fine for her. She was wearing a Scarlett Witch costume minus the mask, and glaring at Derek and his friends. She pursed her lips, holding the tray of drinks in her left hand. "Where is your sister?" she asked him, and Derek held up his hands. You show deference when faced with the Alpha of a territory.

"She was sick, so she stayed home." he answered, and for a moment Lydia's face fell, and she seemed upset.

Too quickly she schooled her expression back in a stern expression and rolled her eyes. "She probably smelled responsibilities and immediately felt sick." she said snidely, and Derek wasn't sure he should be more worried about her using the word 'sniffing' or about the jab at his little sister.

He was saved by answering when Malia appeared at the door, dressed in a Cleopatra outfit. "Ohi, Rica, guys!" she greeted, pushing Lydia away from the doorway.

The red head scowled at them and Malia one last time before disappearing back inside. Erica barged inside, hands in hands with Boyd, and linked her other arm with Malia, leaving Isaac and Derek behind in the doorway. The two boys followed the stream of people and found themselves in the Martin living room which was currently occupied by drunken teenagers. Among the various mummies, zombies, Frankensteins and ghosts they spotted two Greek gods leading the entire dance.

Isaac arched an eyebrow. "I think they win for best couple without even being a couple." he said in the end, and Derek nodded admiringly.

Stiles and Allison were dancing in the middle of the room, dressed respectively as the Greek twins Artemis and Apollo. They even had bow and arrow and Stiles had a lyre in his hand. Scott was dressed as a vampire with even fake blood coming off his real looking fangs and was staring at his girlfriend in awe. Jackson instead was dressed as Captain America and was conversing with Ethan and Aiden who were dressed as werewolves. Fake dressed, but their fangs seemed the real ones. Neither Allison and Lydia were glancing at them, though.

The majority of the people there where Seniors, but Derek noticed Corey from Stiles' cheerleading club, Mason and a few others of Liam's friends. Hayden wasn't anywhere to be seen, but the blue eyed McCall didn't seem to be overly concerned by that.

Ethan grinned at them and beckoned them over as the familiar notes of Work by Rihanna started playing. Derek didn't like and wasn't very good at dancing, but he let the wolf and the mummy pull him on the dancefloor. Although they really did suck compared to Stiles' moves and Allison's fluid motions, it didn't seem to be half bad, especially when Boyd came back holding a few cups of sweet smelling punch.

Werewolves couldn't really get drunk, but drinking was still fun. Especially when others praised them for their endurance. Derek gulped down the contents of his cup at once, and okay, whatever was in there, it was strong. From Isaac and Ethan's faces they clearly weren't expecting it either.

Isaac's eyes positively gleamed. "More of this!" He ordered, and made to follow Boyd in the crowd, but his path was blocked by a particularly douchey looking Captain America.

Jackson smirked at them. "A mummy, Danny Zuko and a werewolf walked in a party." For some reason he seemed incredibly amused by Ethan's costume. "Come with me, we need some more players." He ordered, and pushed Isaac in front of him and headed up the stairs and away from all the noise.

Derek and Ethan shrugged at each other, hoping like Isaac had that they would get more of the sweet drink that Boyd had brought along. They followed Jackson into what Derek assumed was Lydia's spotless clean room. They weren’t the only ones. Beside them there was Lydia, Aiden, Malia, Kira, Stiles, Allison, Scott, Danny and a couple more Seniors that Derek didn't know by name.

Jackson settled down next to Lydia and forced Isaac between himself and Danny. Aiden moved a little to make space for his brother, while Derek took place between Scott and Danny.

Stiles gave them a maniacal grin, pointing at the multiple cups of punch placed in the middle of the circle they formed. "We are playing Never Have I Ever. You all know the rules, right? Then, my beautiful Wanda, you may start!" He announced and Lydia gave him a pleased smile.

She seemed to be still annoyed, although Aiden's hand on her thigh seemed to have appeased her. She gave a sly smirk before downing her cup. "Never have I ever had sex with someone of the same sex." There was a collective groan as everyone in the room beside a couple of seniors, Aiden and Isaac drowned their cups.

Jackson took a cup for himself. "Never Have I ever walked in on someone." He said, pointedly looking at Allison, who blushed.

Stiles shook his fist at him. "You little fucker." he complained, and Derek drank from his own cup, trying very hard to forget that day when he had barged into Laura's room thinking she was dying and then found Jordan Parrish in there instead. Nine months later, Camila Parrish was born.

Isaac was up next. He gave a grin. "Never have I ever had sex with anyone in this room." He said and he held up his hand, which Derek instantly high fived.

Everyone else in the room drank from their cups with smug or very ashamed faces. Isaac better watch out. When Derek's turn came, he settled for the most boring "Never Have I ever had a monage a trois" but he was rewarded by the faces of the entire room made when Jackson, Stiles, Danny, Lydia, Scott and Allison drank from their cups, Scott and Allison looking ashen and the rest vary degrees of smug.

Malia looked at them mystified. "Why was I not invited?" She asked, and Allison shook her head.

"It was mortifying and I did not have sex with my brother so don't you even."

Scott shuddered. "It was so..." He shook his head.

"There was a lot of come everywhere." Offered Stiles and Scott choked on his tongue, while Lydia looked a little grossed out. Stiles winked at her. "Sticky situation." He added, and the entire room groaned.

Allison took her sweet revenge once it was her turn. She smirked. "Never have I ever had sex with Stiles Stilinski." She offered, and mimed shooting one of her arrows. "Boom." She added, for good measure.

Stiles blushed, spluttering and glared at her. "Slut shaming. This is slut shaming, plain and simple." He complained and Allison fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"Never said it was a bad thing." She expressed earnestly and nudged Lydia. "You should drink up." Lydia blushed and some of the seniors gaped as she glared and drank. Aiden, Allison, Kira, Derek, one of the seniors and Isaac were the only ones who didn’t drink. Malia gave an apologetic look at Kira, and Derek wondered when had the two of them gotten so close. So maybe that was who Malia had been texting and mushing over. That made him giggle a little.

The entire room seemed to be shaking a little. Shit, was he drunk? Perhaps.

He had never been drunk before, but he could recognise the symptoms. His head felt light and everything seemed suddenly ten times funnier than ever.

Lydia was the first to decide the game over, standing up with Aiden. "This was great, but now get the fuck out of my room." She ordered, and causing for some reason this caused a laugh out of many people in the bedroom. Danny and Jackson had their arms around each other as they sung loudly along with the music coming from downstairs. Malia was sloppily making out with Kira, and Derek laughed at the sight.

He was right! There was something going on with the two of them. He really should become a detective. Isaac had already left, leaving only the seniors in the room.

Carefully the werewolf made his way towards the stairs, but stumbled over his own feet and landed face down. Someone giggled and it took him several seconds to realise that it hadn't been himself. Still laying on the floor, he turned his head to see Stiles standing at another doorway, his Greek toga been ditched for his more comfortable boxers.

The werewolf did his best to look away from Stiles' Ironman boxers and happy trail, and look at his face. The boy winked at him. "Hey, Derek. Did you fall for me?" He slurred, and then clapped his own mouth to stop himself from giggling.

Derek forced himself not to laugh. "That one was truly awful." He informed the boy, staring at his briefs. He was just so fucking pretty. Fucking pink heart shaped lips, and those fucking hazel eyes, his fucking cream skin and all those moles that Derek wanted to lick. 

Stiles sat down with his head on the door. "Lydia is doing god knows what with Aiden, I don’t want to know where Ally and Scott are, Jackson is missing, Danny was straddling a dude last I saw him, Malia is making out with Ki..." He started listing and stopped when Derek crawled until he was on his knees between Stiles' legs.

The boy blinked a few times and a blush spread on his cheeks as he smirked. "Well, hello there." He greeted.

Derek, embolded by the alcohol and non-rejection put each hand at a side of Stiles' head, and when the boy just wriggled his eyebrows, he kissed him. Stiles' lips were as soft as Derek had pictured, but Stiles wasn't the one submitting under him, as Derek had guessed he would.

He took over the kiss, and somehow managed to get Derek and pin him down easily enough. Stiles was rough, almost ravenous in his kisses and the werewolf felt his dick twitching in interest. The teenager kept kissing him, all but rubbing himself against Derek like a cat in heat. Not that the green eyed boy was against it at all.

Stiles bit Derek's lower lip hands trailing down his covered torso. Why was his chest covered? Abolish clothes! Burn them! When the brunette's teeth grazed his neck, Derek couldn't help the almost growl that left his lips. Werewolves were always sensitive around the neck. If he hadn’t been hard before he definitely was now.

Stiles noticed too, a hand tugging Derek's pants. "Off, off" he ordered, and somehow in his drunken state Derek managed to take off his pants with agility. A part of Derek's brain was aware that they were almost in full view, and was thankful that the lights were at least off. Stiles freed himself of his own pants, and Derek's brain completely melted, because skin to skin contact, fuck.

Stiles put a hand around both their dicks, and Derek had to bite back a moan. His hands were magic, and his dick was magic, and his face was magic, and Stiles. Was. Magic.

He didn't last long, and he would forever blame it on the fact that he was drunk as fuck, but Stiles didn't comment on it, just kept going until he was too on the floor, suddenly tired.

"I am indeed magic."  He slurred in the end, and Derek normally would have blushed at having lost his mouth control. Stiles put his boxers back on and reached inside the room (which was a storage room) and picked up a couple of tissues, cleaning the mess in a matter of seconds. "I'm wrecked." He decided then, and dropped back on the floor, closing his eyes.

The werewolf would have gladly imitated him, and was about to, when a howl rived the night. An unknown howl. A werewolf howl. Derek was on his feet before he could ever register what had happened, but Stiles was passed out on the floor. Maybe it hadn't been very loud.

He made his way downstairs, somehow, and immediately spotted Boyd who had a passed out Isaac under his arm and an asleep Erica on his back. At least the boy seemed to be sober. Ethan gave them a look as Derek descended the stairs and shook his head minutely. The humans had not heard the sound.

He was almost at the door when Jackson appeared, looking half-drunk half pissed, looking around. "Stiles? Has anyone seen Stiles?" He kept asking, and Derek froze for a second, finally realising what had happened.

Holy fuck. He had fucked Stiles. He had basically had sex with Jackson' boyfriend. He was so dead.

"I hate you so much." Announced Cora staring at her brother with a pout. The werewolf flinched at her voice, the sound hurting his brain. He was never getting drunk again. Cora continued. "You had fun and you got smashed and you actually are having a hangover! Like how did Lydia even find something strong enough for a werewolf?" She questioned, flailing her arms around.

Laura appeared at the doorway and winced sympathetically. "An advice? Run it off. It’s because it’s your first ever hangover." She sagely reported and Derek decided to obey. She had once broken in Peter’s secret wine stash, and it was better than staying there and having to listen to Cora's whines.

He found out soon enough that Laura was right, running really helped burning off the hangover. Perhaps because you needed energy more quickly and his metabolism burned off?

Derek had just shifted back in human form and was getting ready to return home when some voices from the bridge startled him. It was almost 12.30, but with the fact that it was Saturday and the weather was quite chilly, almost about to rain, he couldn't fight the surprise of finding Lydia and Stiles standing next to the bridge.

The girl looked furious, and Derek stopped behind a tree right on time to see her raising her palm and slapping him. His eyes widened, but Stiles didn't even flinch. Lydia spoke anyway. "What. is. wrong. with. you." she hissed. "You didn't leave a note, nor anything, Scott was about to cry and even your dad was worried!" Stiles sill wouldn't meet her eyes, and Derek finally saw the bunch of lilies in his arms.

The brunette took one and let it fall in the small puddle of water that Beacon Hills citizens still insisted in calling a lake. The werewolf noted how at that, Lydia visibly shrunk a little and stopped smelling angered and just more pitiful and sad. Her voice was still hard when she spoke again. "I'll drive you home." she offered, and then stepped back, touching his shoulder once before walking away. Once Lydia disappeared in the trees, Stiles kind of... crumbled.

He sat down on the bridge, gazing down at the water and let go of another flower. "Soo, hey. It’s been a while." he started speaking, his voice kind of quiet and frail. "She's back. Heather I mean. She hasn’t spoken to me, and I kinda hope that Malia and the rest scared her off, but… well, I did hope that she would stop going after me after you, you know, but we saw how that ended.” He took a sigh, and Derek could smell the tears in his voice. “It’s just… It was all my fault, and I wish I could apologize. I should have believed you.” He gave a fake laugh. “We played right into her little game.”

The teenager seemed to tremble all over, and then pulled up his knees, hiding his face. “I’m sorry.” He said, softly.

Derek hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, so he chose that moment to come out of his hiding. He didn’t want Stiles to be pissed at him, although he was still a little anxious at what would happen if- when- Jackson found out.

He stepped out of the trees, and Stiles looked up, startled to see Derek there.  The werewolf didn’t miss the way Stiles immediately rubbed his eyes with his hand, nor his fake cheerful tone when he spoke. “Hey, Derek.”

Derek gave him a tight smile, unsure what to say. Stiles probably didn’t want to talk about it, and Derek couldn’t just ask him outright. On the other side, if he didn't ask anything, it might have sounded suspicious. Or maybe Derek was just paranoid.

He glanced down at the brunette, who, for once, didn't look like his cocky and almost arrogant self. "Stiles? Are you okay? Did something..." he started, but Stiles looked up at him with a blinding smile on his face.

"Nah, I'm fine. Do you usually go running without a shirt on?" he asked, and Derek sighed internally at the blatant subject change.

He shrugged. "Every now and then." he muttered, looking at everything but Stiles' hand. The same hands that had been on his dick the night before. He didn't dare look at those heart shaped lips either, and tried to concentrate on Stiles' eyes.

The teenager seemed slightly amused at Derek' blatant blush. "Are you okay?" he asked, standing up and tilting his head to the side with a glint in his eyes. He was careless then, and let go of his flowers who fell into the lake below.

Derek watched the boy following the flowers with a comical 'oh' on his face, and almost laughed. But there wasn't anything comical about Stiles’ expression after the flowers disappeared under the bridge. Although he gripped the bridge's railing, the werewolf could tell his hands were shaking slightly. Derek wanted to reach out, wanted to help him, but suddenly Stiles went stiff and turned at him, resolute. 

"Anyway, if you are here about yesterday..." he started. Derek prepared himself, but all Stiles said was "it was nice, 10/10 would bang again, but I don't really date." The brunette shrugged uncaring, and Derek blinked a few times. What.

Derek opened his mouth to ask him what he meant, but what came out instead was "So we don't tell Jackson?" He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He didn't want Jackson to come for him and having to hurt him and became the school's number one enemy.

Stiles frowned. "Why would I tell him?" he asked, and nope, Derek wasn't that kind of guy.

"Stiles, it's cheating. You should tell Jackson before he finds out by someone else." he told him, and something in Stiles' expression fell. His face became cold as stone. Derek stared at him, warily.

"Cheating." said Stiles, tonelessly. "You accused me of cheating." he said, and Derek resisted the urge to nod. Did he not remember how far they had gone the night before or was he just pretending to not know? "I am not dating Jackson." said Stiles finally, and Derek stared at him for a second.

He... wasn't? Certainly, after that one time Derek had almost walked in on them, he had never actually seen them doing anything with each other. And although Cora insisted that he should expect to see them fucking in every angle of the school, they really didn't seem that attached to each other. But Stiles was captain of the cheerleading team, it would make sense for him to date the co-captain of the lacrosse team since the other co-captain was his best friend. It was... an honest mistake! Stiles expression remained carefully blank while Derek ran through all his thoughts. Before the werewolf could apologize, Stiles spoke again. "I don't date, and I would never cheat on anyone."

Derek felt like a dick. Stiles had, if Cora was correct, dated two people and both of them had cheated on him. And now Derek had gone and accused him of cheating. He looked at the head of the cheerleaders with a pained expression. "Stiles, look..."

"It's fine." interrupted him the boy, waving him off. It was obviously not fine. Derek still felt bad. The other boy caught the look on his face, and he softened a little. "Honestly, Der, it's fine. You just caught me on a bad day." he answered, truthfully, and Derek glanced down at the lake, where just some petals remained of the flowers Stiles had brought with him.

The green eyed boy cautiously moved next to Stiles, unsure if they were still friends or whatever. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, and Stiles looked at him for a moment.

He sighed. "This is where they found Theo." he said evenly at the end, and Derek felt the need to squeeze Stiles' shoulder and frown at the same time. From what he had heard, Theo had left the school after ruining everything and then apologizing to Stiles.

Stiles continued speaking, staring down at the water. "Just the day before, he came to my house. He was crying. He said that he didn't mean to do anything that had happened, that he truly loved me. That he was sorry. He was on one side of my door and I was on the other, and we were both bawling our eyes out. My dad came down and told him to get out of the house. Before he left, he promised that he was going to prove himself to me. I didn't care." Stiles squeezed his eyes shut, but Derek could smell his raw pain and tears. "It was me and Scott who found him, by accident. Scott told me to come with him in the woods, probably to cheer me up and not say something like 'I told you so'. Then we heard a wolf howling. Scott said it was a wolf howling. I told him that there are no wolves in California, and it was probably a coyote or a dog. But we followed the sound, because there was something about it. We got here, and I saw him. Theo, I mean. He was shaking in the lake, and he had a huge wound bleeding from his side. He was bleeding from his nose, from his mouth. He just kept losing blood. I screamed, of course, and I just couldn't move. Scott did everything. He threw himself in the water and took him out. He made me hold him while he called his mother. And Theo... he..." Stiles swallowed, the lump in his throat almost making him unable to speak. To this day, he could remember perfectly the way Theo had been that night. "He kissed my cheek, and when he saw me crying and not pushing him away, he seemed pleased. He asked me if he had proven himself worthy of me. I said yes. He said sorry, and held one hand in me, and gave me one last kiss. Then he died in my arms." Now the tears were running free on his face, and Stiles kept his distance from Derek, refusing to let the other man touch him. "The police declared that it had been a mountain lion attack." He laughed bitterly. "But I saw the bite. It wasn't a mountain lion. There was wolf bane and mistletoe poisoning in his system. Whatever bit him obviously had a deadly combination with wolf bane and mistletoe, and I know for a fact that mountain lions do not. Maybe a wolf, but... there are no wolves in California. But I don't care. Theo Raeken was murdered, he didn't die in a freak accident. And I'm going to get at the bottom of this, I don't care if it's the last thing I do." he finished, staring at the water viciously.

Derek swallowed, unsure what to say. Now he knew. He remembered. When he was a freshman and his mother had come home with a grave face, saying that a werewolf had most probably bitten a young boy and that the bite hadn't taken. That the boy had died agonizingly slow. She had been distraught. Apparently the boy had no alive family members looking after him except his grandmother, who hadn't shed a tear at his death, but had later hung herself in the living room. It had been a tragedy. The name of the boy had never been disclosed, but Derek was ready to bet it had been Theo.

Suddenly Stiles looked up, his eyes dry, and blushed as he looked at Derek sheepishly. "Sorry for this. The anniversary always fucks me up." he hesitated. "Just... don't tell anyone." he made him promise, and Derek nodded hastily, hoping for once that he was as eloquent as Laura. The boy nodded again, and then dashed away towards the trees. A moment later, he heard Lydia's car speeding away.

For the first time ever, Derek actually wished that werewolves were known, so that Stiles and Theo could have the justice they deserved.

Derek knew he was a little responsible for it, when Mr Harris gave the entire class a surprise test and a project to complete in group of twos. A project that usually needed about 5 people to even function properly. At least he gave them a maximum of two months deadline.

He knew he was responsible, because Allison had gotten back to him with a number of new matches scheduled, which meant Harris had to escort the team for their matches. Pissed didn't even start to describe the man.

The teacher kept talking, ignoring the annoyed expression of the students. "I will personally pick the pairs." he said, and someone groaned. Harris narrowed his eyes. "Did I hear complaining?" he asked, and the class quietened down. The man stared at the class and started speaking. "Yukimura and Boyd. Reyes and Greenburg." Kira smiled at Boyd, who smiled back. Erica dropped her head on the table, while Greenburg shrank fearfully on his seat.

Harris kept pairing people up, until only a few were left. "McCall and... Stilinski." Both Stiles and Scott looked up incredulous, and the man gave them a grin. "Actually, no. McCall and Mahealani. Whittemore and Lahey. Stilinski and Hale." he said in the end, and Derek sighed. Could have been way worse. Obviously didn't know that they went along just fine, the six of them. Although Stiles was great in Chemistry despite Harris always marking him down, and Derek was barely on a C.

Jackson and Stiles stopped at their table, and smirked. The blonde grinned at Isaac. "So, Lahey. Do I just drop you off at your house after lacrosse so we can get started?" he asked, and Isaac shrugged. Derek could hear his heart beating faster than usual and frowned, while Jackson just grinned wider for whatever reason.

Isaac pretended to be alright. "Yeah, sure. Why start so fast? Looks like you want to get rid of me as fast as possible." he said, nonchalantly, and Jackson sneered.

"Don't make me say you are right about something." his voice remained steady, and Isaac seemed slightly disappointed.

Stiles push him by the hip. "Or maybe you just want to spend time with Isaac as soon as possible and have him in your car for... important activities." Jackson turned red, and hit Stiles' head, looking outraged. Isaac just choked on air, and Derek glared at the other two before patting him on the back.

Jackson rolled his eyes, still scarlet and left without another word, while Isaac ran off to the toilets to get some water. Stiles laughed. "God, Jackson is officially gone for Isaac." he said, and Derek stared at him confused.

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Dude, come on. Everyone can tell. Ally and Scott have been teasing him mercilessly for days." He chuckled again. "Anyway, can I have your number? For scientific purposes." Derek gave him a flat look at the pun, and Stiles grinned. "Before I grow old and bald."

Derek rolled his eyes again at the boy's antics, and then reached out to snatch Stiles' phone out of his hands. The brunette just smirked, and Derek huffed, typing the remaining digits on his phone. He gave it back and Stiles smirked again. "When should we start?" he asked.

Derek chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully. "I have practice today and on Fridays." he offered and Stiles nodded.

"I have them on Tuesday and Friday, so if we really want to do get it done, I suggest Wednesday and Thursdays?" he proposed.

Derek nodded again. The werewolf had a vision of them trying to work while his mother, his father, Peter, Malia, Cora, Jordan, Laura and Camila were in the house. He shuddered. "Your place?"

Stiles shrugged. "Don't mind."

They both stood up ready to make their way towards the canteen, when they were suddenly interrupted by Liam.

The young boy looked at Stiles with a wild look in his eyes. "Stiles, I need your help." he hissed, and the brunette tilted his head to the side.

"Dude, you have a brother for a reason. Ask Scott."

Liam gripped him by the shoulders, and despite being smaller and younger, Stiles winced in pain. Liam stared at him meaningfully. "It's about Hayden." he said again, and now Stiles seemed interested.

"Do you need sex tips?" he asked, and Derek choked back a laugh. Liam didn't seem impressed.

"It's important. It’s about Hayden and Brett." he declared, and Stiles gave a pained sigh.

He turned to Derek. "I'll text you my address." he says evenly, before disappearing with the other boy in tow.

Derek chuckled to himself as he watched the other two leave. He would never understand Liam and Stiles’ relationship. Sometimes they looked like they wanted to kill each other for Scott’s undivided attention, while other Liam looked at Stiles like the boy was his brother.

“Hi, Derek.” Said a voice next to him, and Derek turned confused towards the girl talking, and almost flinched. He hadn’t heard her approaching him, and that was enough to put his sense on edge. That and her scent.

Her scent was spicy and sweet at the same time. He had never actually encountered a scent like that, but he was positive he knew what it was. Magic. But not the good kind, not the kind that was often found in Deaton’s cabin. It was the bad one, the one that usually meant trouble.

Her eyes were the colour of chocolate, and she was objectively good looking. She didn’t have Lydia’s flashing good looks, or Allison’s pretty, but there was something magnetizing about her. Her blonde hair, darker than Erica’s and straighter made her look mild, but Derek’s wolf was shouting at him to strike her, because she was danger, dangerous, enemy.

“Heather.” He said, staring at her with narrowed eyes. He had never actually interacted with the girl before, and it made him uneasy her sudden closeness.

She arched an eyebrow. “Have you joined the anti-Heather club as well?” The bitterness in her voice was well fabricated, since she smelled so… smug.

He didn’t grant her with an answer, and just stared down at her. From the corner of his eye he could see Isaac and Scott staring at them. The blond was obviously listening in, looking anxious, but Scott looked colder than ever. His lips were set in a tight line, and he looked positively murderous.

Heather sighed. “I was just wondering. You and Stiles seem to have become friends, and I was wondering… if you could pass a message along for me.” Derek started to shake his head, but she raised a hand to stop him. “Listen for a second. I want to apologize to him. I know that it doesn’t sound like much, and that maybe I don’t deserve him. I know that. But I just… I feel so bad about all I did. I want… I want him back. I want to prove myself to him.” She looked up at him earnestly.

The boy was taken aback by this. He could smell the guilt rolling off her, and she seemed ready to do anything to get to Stiles. And with what Stiles told him the day before about Theo…

Before he could formulate an answer, Scott was suddenly in between him and Heather, and the werewolf could have sworn that the lacrosse co-captain was positively growling at her. “Get. Lost.” He gritted at her.

Derek saw Heather change from sad/guilty to annoyed/angry in a second split and felt sick at the prospect of having almost fallen in her net. She glared at Scott and Derek. “I don’t know what your deal is, McCall.” She said, narrowing her eyes at him.

Scott stood tall in front her. “My deal is, if you don’t get the fuck away from Stiles, you will end up dead.” Derek glanced at him in alarm. Okay, maybe she and Stiles had a messy break up and romance, but threatening her of death? “And trust me, I will find a way to kill you.”

Derek stepped a little away from Scott. Scott was a hunter. There wasn’t any other possible explanation for the way he reacted at Heather. He couldn’t possibly smell the magic from her, but he certainly seemed to know she wasn’t fully human. Did Deaton know that his eldest son was a hunter and that his girlfriend was one too?

Was everyone in Scott’s little clique a hunter? Lydia was certainly one, and Scott. Allison seemed to be one too. But Stiles… Stiles couldn’t be one. He was too unaware, plus he sucked at lying to his teacher about homework. Homework! There was no way he could carry such a big secret.

Heather glared once more, and then flicked her hair, walking away.

When Scott turned to Derek, his expression was not quite something he could read. “Don’t let her talk you into getting Stiles for her, and for the love of god, stay away from her. You should go, now.” He said, carefully.

Something about his voice resounded in his head like his mother’s, like an Alpha talking down to a Beta, and Derek found himself nodding at the shorter boy. Scott gave him a last look, and then walked off, leaving Isaac and Derek to look at each other in confusion. What the hell had just happened.

Sheriff Stilinski was the one who opened the door, staring down at Derek already in his uniform. The werewolf smiled politely at him. “Good afternoon, sir.”

He had seen the man several times around town. He was the Law, in Beacon Hills, and he had taken in Derek to speak to him privately when Kate Argent tried to burn down his house. The man smiled at Derek, looking confused. “Derek Hale, right? How are you, son?” he asked, stepping back to allow Derek to enter the house.

The Argent-Stilinski household was so… normal. It looked the same as anyone else’s house. Painted in pastel blue (Derek was having a hard time figuring out who of the four habitants of the house chose the colour), it was filled with pictures of Claudia Stilinski and of the twins. There was one single picture of Chris Argent, his deceased wife Victoria and Allison too. A huge sword was in display at the top of the stairs.

Derek turned to smile at the man. “I have a project to do with Stiles.” He told him, and the man nodded in understanding.

“Oh, yeah, he mentioned something like that. Stiles! Derek is here!” he shouted, making the werewolf flinch. Then he turned back to him. “Upstairs, down the corridor, the door to the right.” He told him, grabbing his coffee and his gun.

Derek followed the man’s instructions, and then knocked at the door. “Come in!” answered Stiles’ voice, and Derek stepped in.

He wasn’t sure what he had expected Stiles’ room to be like. There were books everywhere, and the room was painted in white and black. A glass board was hung in an angle, with a number of strings attached to it and names written in a scrawl like handwriting. Stiles was currently on the floor in front of the TV with Scott McCall, both of them trying to out win each other at Mario Kart.

Neither turned around when Derek walked in, bag on his back. “Yo, Sourwolf, settle down, I’ll kick Scott’s ass and I’ll be with you!” said Stiles, eyes on the game.

“Kick my ass, funny, how about you manage to drive straight for once.”

“Dude, you drive as straight as your jaws.” Trashed him Stiles, making Derek snort and Scott let out a wounded noise.

They trash talked each other a little more, and only stopped when they both ended up out of the track. Finally, Stiles turned to Derek, who had made himself comfortable on one of Stiles’ chairs and was skimming through what appeared to be Stiles’ plan for the entire project.

Stiles hopped on his desk. “Sorry for this. Him and A are going out and she said that she’d be ready in a moment so of course, being the good friend that I am, I invited him to stay with me instead of downstairs with dad.” He explained, a highlighter in his mouth.

Scott grinned at Derek, and the werewolf couldn’t not equate this boy- this puppy- with the guy that mere few days ago had threatened a girl of murder and had scared the living crap out of Isaac. And him.

A few seconds later, Allison peeked inside the room, and smiled at them. “Oh, hi, Derek.” She greeted, and turned to Scott. “We can go now.” She said, and Scott lit up like a small kid on Christmas day.

“See you guys tomorrow!” called Scott, before dashing outside.

Stiles snorted. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” he shouted after them, and was rewarded with a chuckle from his sister and her boyfriend.

Stiles turned back to look at Derek. “So, I have already something planned, as you see.” He said from around the highlighter in his mouth. Derek was having a hard time looking away. “See, it’s not a too hard experiment, and even though it’s college content, it is explained in the books. It should grant us a straight A, if we do it perfectly.”

Derek looked away from Stiles’ mouth, but the boy was rereading something he wrote, sucking thoughtfully on his highlighter to notice. Derek cleared his throat. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I am not really good in chemistry.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes at Derek. “Well, you are about to become.” He told him, and Derek gulped. Especially when Stiles added “Noone will get between me and my A.”

They had just started looking up the equipment needed for the experiment when there was a knock at the door, and then Chris Argent peeked inside the room. Derek shifted nervously in his chair when the man’s gazed stopped on him. Stiles grinned at his father. “Hello, oh father of mine.” He called, and Chris gave a sigh.

“Derek. I didn’t know you and him were friends, Stiles.” Said the man, and Derek wanted to growl at him. Was he still angry at Derek for what his sister had done to him? Did that even make sense? The hunter seemed to realise how that had sounded, and looked apologetic. “I mean, I thought your parents would rather you stay away from us?” he explained.

Stiles tutted, putting an arm around Derek’s shoulder. Up this close Derek could smell his scent of apples and freshly cut grass, and something like rain and thunder. “I am not Kate, pops. None of us is, and Derek and I can be friends without thinking about that deranged woman.” He told him, and Derek almost snorted.

He cleared his throat. “I don’t hold what Kate did against any of you, sir.” And the man nodded. He stole a look at the books spread before them and pulled a face. “Chemistry? Good luck with that.” He said, but there was a gleam in his eye when he looked at Stiles, and Stiles snorted.

The brunette turned to Derek when the man left. “Inside joke. Basically, Harris and pops went to school together, and Harris was a dick even then. So when he heard that Harris was trying to get me kicked out of the school because he didn’t like me, pops went to have a chat with him. Harris has stopped giving me detentions for no reason ever since.” He explained, and they both laughed.

For the next hour and half they worked on the books and the experiments they would need to perform for them. They stopped only when Chris came back up with some drinks for them and then left the house.

Derek wrote down a few equations, and Stiles glanced back at him, lips pursed around the highlighter that had made a reappearance in his mouth. He stepped behind Derek and pointed at the writing with his thumb. “You equated this wrong.” He mumbled, but Derek wasn’t even listening. He was too busy trying not to think about Stiles with his mouth around something else.

“… and this is- are you even listening?” asked the boy, irritated, and Derek gave a sigh without looking at him.

“Can you just take that thing out of your mouth? It’s annoying me.” He muttered, and he felt Stiles huffing on his neck.

“Annoying you or distracting you?” he questioned, easily, and this time Derek looked at him. Mistake.

His eyes fell on his mouth again, the way he was holding the highlighter while playing with it in his mouth. He looked back up at Stiles, a blush on his face when the boy’s eyes glinted mischievously. “Both.” He groaned, and made to turn back again.

Stiles stopped him, and turned the chair towards him fully, dropping to his knees. “We could find my mouth something better to hold on then? Something that helps your oral fixation?” he asked allusively, and Derek found himself failing to look away from the boy.

“Your dads…” started Derek, and Stiles rolled his eyes, throwing away the highlighter while he undid Derek’s zip.

“Dad works late, and whatever pops does makes him late too. Allison is with Scott, so…” he stopped and looked at Derek again. “Only if you want, though. I mean it when I say I’m not Kate.”

Derek wanted to kiss him. From one side he was annoyed that Kate having sexually molested him while she sent people to burn his house was common knowledge, but from the other side he was touched Stiles didn’t want him to make him uncomfortable and wanted him to trust him. “I would be dumb to turn you down.” He told him, and Stiles grinned.

“Hell yes, you would.” He commented, but he looked pleased as he helped Derek out of his pants and underwear.

The brunette eyed his cock in a thoughtful way, making Derek blush harder than before. Then he started moving his hand slowly against its length, before wrapping both his hands around it.

Derek bit back a moan, as Stiles’ hands moved even further up and down his cock, getting him worked up soon enough.

“Prepare yourself for the best head of your life, sir.” Announced Stiles fully serious. Derek wanted to roll his eyes at him, but then Stiles tongue was suddenly on the tip of his tongue, and Derek wanted to die.

Stiles’ tongue felt like sin as it slowly twirled around the head of hid cock and proceeded further down in his mouth. His mouth was warm and wet, as his tongue slid down his length, and Derek couldn’t bite back a moan at the sensation. When the boy fondled with his balls and actually deep throated him all in one go, all the while holding fucking eye contact with him, Derek felt like he could just day happily there.

He held on pretty well for a second, until Stiles slowly and steadily, still holding eye contact dragged his tongue from the base of his cock to the tip, leaving Derek to come with a loud moan. Then, the fucker got back on his feet, licking his lips. “Now that we are done, can we start finish the assignment?”

Derek pounced on him.

+

Derek got home later than usual, quite satisfied with himself. Stiles was very damn good with his mouth, but Derek wasn’t to be outdone by him. He had given Stiles a blowjob too, and then they had spent quite a bit of time laughing and writing down the assignment.

He wasn’t dumb, they were on the same page on the entire thing. They were just friends, fuck buddies at best. It wasn’t like they even knew that much about each other anyway.

Derek opened the door, throwing his bag in a corner before climbing up the stairs. Cora materialised out of nowhere, looking distraught for a moment. “I was waiting for you so that I could talk to someone about my…” she stopped, and sniffed the air for a second.

The werewolf cursed himself for a second and werewolf senses, before dashing past her. He probably still reeked of sex and Cora wasn’t dumb, she knew where he had been.

“You had sex with Stiles!” accused his sister, and Derek closed the door of his bedroom with a lock. Not that it would stop Cora if she really wanted to come in. “Again!” she added, for good measure. Derek ignored her. She gave a sigh. “Mark my words, Derek: this is going to end in tears. Your tears.” The green eyed werewolf didn’t reply her.

The next day at school, Derek and Stiles didn’t really talk to each other. Lydia didn’t stop to talk or threaten him in any way, seemingly ignoring all of the Hales for once. Curiously enough, Cora seemed miserable. Miserable enough that even Malia noticed and stepped away from Kira young enough to cheer her up.

He wasn’t the most adept person when it came to talking about feelings, so he was more than glad for his cousin’s help. Derek stopped outside the maths class where Isaac most probably was, waiting for his friend before heading to get some food.

The blond werewolf came out of the classroom almost last, laughing hard at something Jackson said. Derek arched an eyebrow at him, and Isaac turned brittle red, while Jackson rolled his eyes. “See you at practice, Lahey.” He called, before disappearing down the hall.

For Isaac’s sake, Derek pretended not to notice his blush and the idiotic way he was staring wistfully after Whittemore. “You don’t have practice on Thursday. Or do you?” He asked, and Isaac managed to turn even more red than before.

Derek looked at him, intrigued now. Isaac sighed. “He’s giving me lessons, because I have more talent than the majority of the team.” He muttered.

Derek snorted. “Oh, looks like he actually wants to spend more time with you. That’s… Sweet.” Isaac punched him on the shoulder, while Derek laughed at him.

They noticed Lydia and Stiles not too far away, Lydia looking far more pissed than Derek had yet to see her. Stiles kept babbling after her. “…Thanks for your concern for my car who is, as you may now, completely out of use, what the fuck did you and Allison do with my baby, and I know you are pissed that she didn’t come to your party and this is just even more-” he stopped rambling when Lydia fixed him with a look that could wake the dead.

“I. Do. Not. Care. About. Her.” She hissed, punctuating every word with a poke on his chest.

Stiles looked a little disbelieving, but something in Lydia’s face made him stop. His eyes turned softer, and he gave her a hug, essentially hiding her from anyone. “My car is wrecked and you don’t give a shit, and it breaks my heart, but I must stay strong for Roscoe, who is my light, my voice, my reason to be and she’s all I want so much it’s hurting…” People laughed at his outburst as they walked past, but Derek heard Lydia’s little sniff and thank you anyway.

Stiles was really a good friend.

After lunch the boy found himself sending a small text message to Stiles, asking him if he wanted Derek to drive him home afterwards. The boy answered with too many emojis than Derek could tolerate, and then they were set.

The brunette was already at the car when Derek finally appeared, without Boyd or Cora with him. Stiles grinned. “Hello, big boy.” He asked, and Derek was surprised and relieved that there wasn’t any awkwardness between them from the day before.

He climbed in the seat next to him, and promptly put his feet up. And because he was a dick, he tried to kick Derek when the boy tried to get his feet away from his precious car.

“So… what happened to Lydia, today?” he asked, when Stiles just kept his feet up and fiddled with his phone.

The other looked up and rolled his eyes. “She is trying to make me believe that she is a cold hearted bitch who suddenly has no feeling whatsoever, when I know for a fact that she has a crush. But obviously I pretend to not being aware of it.” He explained, easily.

Then he looked at Derek with a frown. “Did Isaac tell you anything?” he asked, and Derek turned to look at him with a shrug.

“No. Should he have?” he asked.

Stiles gave him a shit eating grin. “Nope. So Jackson is not that completely gone, yet. That’s good to know.” He murmured and then winked at Derek. “He still has the hots on Isaac. I mean, he offered to help him with lacrosse? Jackson, class A douchebag and the biggest dick I know, helping. Someone.” He snickered. “I love it.”

Once they got back to Stiles’ house, the boy warmed up some pizza rolls, and then they got back to their chemistry work. Stiles was a good teacher, if he could stop and focus on something for long enough, but Derek understood more with him than he had ever done with any other teacher.

They finished what Stiles had prepared for the day pretty quickly, and decided to wrap up for the day.

Stiles and Derek stared at each other for a few moments. “Allison is out with Lydia, and my dads are out late again.” He said after a moment.

Derek nodded. “Okay.”

Stiles gave him a smirk. “Wanna have sex?” he asked, and Derek rolled his eyes. But then he smirked. “Hell yeah.”

But anyway, it just happens because of the project.

Derek was about to head out to meet with Stiles for the project when his sister cornered him, Camila on her shoulder. “Derek, my saviour!” she called, stopping him right as he took his bag.

He looked at her warily as she basically put Camila in his arms. “Please save me, Ms Martin has induced a last minute meeting, and needs me, but mom will be home in like 1h and half, and I can’t wait, please look after her!” she begged, and Derek let out a long suffering sigh.

He and Stiles had finished one of the experiments during chemistry, but they needed to write it down, still. On the other side, Laura and Cora were always able to get him to do what they wanted. “Can’t your useless husband look after her?” he whined, but he had already given up.

Laura sighed. “He has a case going on.” Derek let out another long sigh, and Laura gave him a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you, Der!” she called, running out of the room.

Derek glared after her, but she didn’t give him any mind, and in a few seconds, she was gone.

He resigned himself to spend some time with his niece, and quickly dialled Stiles’ number. He picked up after three rings. “Yo, sourwolf.” He answered, and Derek could hear the faintly sound of people laughing in the background.

“I can’t make it today.” He explained rapidly about his sister basically forcing him to look after Camila and his incapacity of telling her no.

Stiles snorted. “Okay. Both my fathers are here anyway, and they are somehow trying to stuff their faces with red meat without me noticing, and trying for the nth time to scare Scott off. The last 10 times they tried should have taught them something, ugh. See you later!” he called, and ended the call before Derek could even get a word in between.

He glanced down at Camila who was drawing on a piece of scrap paper with Cora’s old pencils, and gave an eyeroll. “Weird guy, uh?” he asked her, but she didn’t answer.

10 minutes later he heard the sound of the jeep stopping outside, and then Stiles knocking at his door. Camila was the one who let him in, though, taking a chair and jumping on it before pushing the door open.

Stiles was standing there, in a shirt that read ‘Free protein shakes’ with an arrow pointed downwards and a box of cookies in his hands, no backpack in sign. He grinned at Camila, while Derek just blinked at him in confusion. “Hello, Millie! I brought cookies!” he called, as she launched herself at him.

The girl just laughed, kissing him on the cheek when he actually managed to catch her. “Stiles! I missed you!” she told him, and Derek didn’t miss the soft look in his eyes when he said “Me too.”

Then he looked up at Derek. “Since you suck with kids, and I don’t want the Sheriff sniffing in my romance businesses, I decided to skip the interrogation and join you!” he explained, walking inside the house like he owned the place. Derek trailed after him, closing the door behind them.

“I don’t suck with kids. I have a sibling and many cousins.” He told him, affronted.

Stiles arched an eyebrow as he put Camila down on the table and picked out a couple of plates from the cupboard. “Oh really? And what were you two doing before I came?” he asked.

Camila smirked a little. “He was looking at his phone and I was drawing.” She announced, and Derek huffed, grabbing her by the sides and tickling her.

Stiles tutted, putting some of the homemade cookies in the plates. “See? You suck.” He smirked. “And swallow, am I right?” he added, laughing at Derek’s scandalized expression.

They ended up sprawled on the living room, with Stiles and Derek commenting on the TV show they were watching, and Camila eating cookies and absently playing games with Stiles.

Derek had to admit that Stiles was surprisingly good when it came to kids. Maybe that was why Liam always sought him out instead of his own brother? It seemed likely. And the way Stiles interacted with the smaller wolf, smiling at her softly and making jokes for her to laugh at (often at his expense) couldn’t help but make him a little happy and smiley inside.

Stiles would be a great father someday.

His expression changed when that thought hit him, and Stiles noticed. He shook him by the ankle, and how the fuck had they ended up with Stiles and him all but cuddling on the couch, his feet on Stiles’ lap? “Ohi, big guy, you good? You kinda zoned out on me.” He told him, and Derek gave him a strained smile.

He was saved from answering when finally, Talia Hale returned, looking tired but content. She arched an eyebrow at the image they portrayed, and Derek quickly sat up, hurrying to help his mother. “Hey, mum, how are you?” he asked, taking the shopping bags from her hands.

She raised another eyebrow at that, but didn’t comment on the way he smelled or how flushed he was. “Good. Stiles, how are you?” she asked, sitting down on the other sofa.

Derek left the room, and then immediately went up in his bathroom. Why was Stiles even there? He wasn’t supposed to be there, doing nothing like this. He confused Derek. What the hell were they? Project partners? Friends? Fuck buddies? He didn’t know.

But maybe that was the whole thing. They were just Stiles and Derek, nothing more and nothing less. There was no need to make things complicated by labelling them. It wasn’t like it was important anyway. Once they finished the project, they would just go back to normal.

Never mind that Derek didn’t even know what normal was at this point.

Once he calmed down a little, he finally went back to the living room. Talia was still recounting the story of the Beacon Hills protectors, and Stiles was listening to it with an amused expression, eyeing Camila’s reaction to the story.

It was a story that their mom had told them so many times, but that the entire Hale clan never got bored of. It was the story of 3 boys and 2 girls who were to save the biggest tree in Beacon Hills.

The version for adults was more of a myth than a story. It was the story of a shapeshifter whose soul is split in two, a wailing woman, the kindest and scariest huntress you will ever meet, a mighty alpha trapped in the body of a boy and a spark who can kill you with one single look.

The kid version was of a hero who was once a villain, a princess, a huntress, a werewolf and a warlock. Stiles snickered. “My mom told me that the warlock was a bit of an idiot.” He told them, and there was something very amused in his expression, like he was sharing an inside joke.

“The warlock is my favourite.” Interjected Derek, sitting down next to him again.

Stiles looked at him surprised. “Really? Why?” he asked, suddenly very interested.

Derek shrugged. “He kind of brought them all together, and it was him that created the plan to save the villain right? He is more of an unseen hero. I like that.” He explained, and Stiles gave him a genuine smile, seeming flustered all of a sudden.

“Interesting viewpoint.” Said the brunette, before standing up. “Well, I’ve got to go, Lydia needs me.” He commented, hugging Camila goodbye and kissing his mom on the cheek. He sent a kiss and a wink at Derek. “See you at school, Sourwolf.”

Derek was even more confused than before.

The first to notice something is up, was Boyd. It was always Boyd. This is why Boyd was his best friend, he knew shit is going on before Derek even know what’s going on.

The entire school was in a buzz because of the upcoming basketball match. Apparently, since it was a sport overlooked by Harris and Greenburg, people weren’t too fond of it, but many had noticed the improvement since Greenburg lost his place as the captain of the team.

Jackson even stopped Derek and Boyd as they headed towards their first lesson of the day, trying to avoid any more little sophomore and freshmen telling them to do their best. He glared at them both, and then rolled his eyes. “We don’t have a good reputation in fact of basketball. You better fix that.” Which, in Jackson’ speak was basically a good luck.

Allison wished them good luck with Scott, but Stiles and Lydia didn’t make themselves seen anywhere. He had seen Stiles the day before, and they did have sex (again, muttered Cora when he got home), but he had half expected Stiles to wish him luck as well.

He was about to head towards the changing rooms with the rest of the team, when Stiles appeared out of nowhere and shoved him inside an empty classroom. Derek glared, but Stiles was already on him, mouth on his.

Derek sunk his hands on the boy’s hips, holding his body against his own with a look of hunger on his face. “Missed you…” he moaned, against Stiles’ lips, and the boy just grinned sunnily at him.

“Sure you did, big guy” he teased, as he undid his trousers. He winked at him. “I know someone who missed me more.”

+

Boyd stopped next to him, looking a little worried. The match was about to start in a few minutes, and the pitch stands were packed. Erica, Stiles, Jackson, Isaac, Scott and Allison were all there, and even Peter, Laura and Cora were next to each other holding a ‘Go, Derek!’ poster.

“Where have you been?” asked the other beta, unsubtly sniffing Derek before the werewolf could get away from him. His face changed. “Dude.” He sighed.

“What?” asked him Derek, refusing to look at him in the eye.

Boyd shook his head. “You are my best friend, Derek. I don’t want to see you getting hurt. You need to talk to Stiles.” He decided.

“Talk to him about what?” asked Derek, almost aggressively.

Boyd rolled his eyes. “What happens after you finish the project? Are you friends? What are you guys? You need to DTR.” He told him. “Define the relationship.” He clarified.

“Stiles doesn’t date.” Said the green eyed boy after a while. Of course Boyd was right. Derek was already crushing hard on Stiles, and he didn’t know what to do to stop it from happening. It was like he and Stiles were always together anyway, but they never really went anywhere. They mostly exchanged handjobs and blowjobs, sometimes having sex. They rarely ever kissed, and they did it only when they were trying to get each other all aroused.

Boyd looked exasperated and a little pitiful. “Then what the hell are you two doing?” he asked, and headed towards the pitch.

Derek wasn’t avoiding Stiles di per se. He was just having some time for himself, that’s all. They had almost finished the project, weeks in advance, he might add, and there wasn’t much they could do.

Stiles didn’t seem to mind at all. He sounded almost relieved when Derek told him that they couldn’t make it to the last experiment because family business.

And then Half term break came, and what was Derek supposed to do? Call Stiles just to hang out with him?

Laura sat down next to him on the patio, as they watched Camila and their father playing with each other on the grass. “Why are you miserable?” she asked, bumping her shoulder with his.

Despite the many years difference between the two of them, sometimes Derek felt like he and her were closer than he and Cora. The fact that Cora seemed completely exasperated by every single member of her family since she was about 5 surely didn’t help her case.

Derek huffed. “I’m not.” He answered, and she gave him a disbelieving look.

“Which is why you have been sighing and huffing to yourself for the past couple of days?” she asked, and Derek just glared at her. She patted his leg. “If you need to talk, I’m here.” She told him, before joining her father and her daughter.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he considered leaving it, before giving up and picking it up. There was a text from Stiles.

From: Datboy

Text: DUUUDE, SUPER CINEMA DEAL TODAY. Honest! Civil War, Hunger Games, The Maze Runner… all tickets for 1 dollar BOOOOOI

Derek chuckled at the text. Was that Stiles asking him out on a date? If it was, then it meant he was interested? Was Derek supposed to say yes?

He probably was meant to say no. This could only add to the list of shit that kept messing with his head.

To: Datboy

Text: Sure, what time?

What? Derek never had been good at listening to his little inside voice.

+

The drive to the cinema was unsurprisingly short, but what he found there was a little defeating.

Turns out it wasn’t a date. Derek parked in front of the Cinema, where he could already see many of his friends already standing. Cora, Liam and their little group, Erica, Malia, Boyd, Kira and Isaac with Jackson, and Allison, Scott, Lydia and Stiles.

He couldn’t find it in himself to care at the knowing looks Boyd and the other two sent him, and he just walked up towards Stiles. Lydia glared at him when he approached, but both Allison and Scott seemed to look at him with something hopeful in their eyes.

Stiles winked. “Hey, Sourwolf.” He greeted, punching him on the arm. “Wasn’t sure you were going to make an appearance or not.” He told him, and Derek rolled his eyes.

“You probably would have kept texting and bothering me if I hadn’t come.” He reminded him, and Stiles gave an evil laugh.

“You know me to well. Although I’m still unsure why so many people came along.” He huffed.

Scott gave him an apologetic grin. “Well, you told me and Allison, and obviously Liam heard, Allison told Lydia, Lydia told Jackson, Jackson told Isaac and Danny, Liam told Cora and Brett, Cora told Hayden, Tracy, Malia and Erica, Erica told Boyd…”

Stiles stared at him for a few seconds. “Scotty, my boy, my man…” he started, putting a hand around his shoulders. “Just stop.” he begged.

Derek, who was still being glared at by Jackson and Lydia, turned to Isaac and Allison. “So, what are we watching?” he asked.

Allison gave him a sly grin. “Stiles is going to be watching The Maze Runner, but the majority of us will watch Civil War. You can choose whatever you want.” She said, looking at her nails.

Stiles stopped what he was doing with Scot, and liked arms with Derek. “I invited him, so he’s coming with me. He’s a secret nerd, and he loves Dylan O’Brien…” he told them, and Derek blushed, while he simultaneously tried and failed to get the brunette off him.

Allison winked at him. “I suddenly see you in a whole new different light.” He announced.

Lydia cleared her throat, stealing a glance at Liam’s group. “So? Are we just going to stand here?”

Cora looked at her with a defiant look on her face. “What if we were?” she asked her, and Lydia narrowed her eyes.

“Then that would be damn stupid, and none of you are stupid… or are you?” she asked Cora, who rolled her eyes.

Allison looked between the two of them alarmed. “Okay, girls…”

Stiles took that as a chance to grab Derek’s arm and drag him inside the theatre. He grinned at him. “You can buy me popcorn; I’ll get the drinks. A Pepsy or a Coke guy?” he asked.

Derek gave him a mischievous grin. “Get me a Fanta.” He ordered, and Stiles shook his head.

“So disappointed in you.”

+

The movie wasn’t exactly awkward, but at the same time it was. Jackson and Isaac were sitting right next to them, with Jackson spending a good chunk of his time making heart eyes at Isaac and unsubtly looking at what Derek was doing.

Lydia and Cora were also sitting in their same movie, and Lydia spent the entire movie arguing with his sister, who just kept snarking back, like an old couple.

Stiles? He was completely absorbed in his movie, the only one who was actually paying attention to what was going on, simultaneously gushing at Dylan O’brien’s performance, crying over every single line Thomas Sangster delivered, and thirsting over Ki Hong Lee’s arms.

The moment the movie ended, however, Stiles was the first to stand up, tugging Derek along with him until they were outside. The werewolf looked at him in confusion, but Stiles just kept tugging him along.

He only stopped once they got inside the bar opposite the cinema, and he gave Derek a sheepish smile. “Ugh. Sorry about Jackson.” He said, and Derek was even surprised he noticed.

He crossed his arms around his chest, as they walked towards the cashier. “What is his problem anyway?” he asked the brunette.

Stiles gave him a shrug. “I think he’s trying to get into the big brother role, now that he’s thinking about dating Isaac and is trying to… I don’t know, warn you off?” Derek blushed a little at the words, but then Stiles went stiff. He looked up at Derek with a nervous expression. “Well, anyway, we’re going to be super busy this week and next. There is the school trip after the Christmas holidays, and the winter school dance to organize. So… yeah.”

Derek looked at the boy with his eyebrows furrowed. Something had happened, something had changed between them. But he couldn’t understand what. Stiles had gone from being all relaxed to being visibly stiff and nervous.

The brunette grabbed two ice creams and payed, suddenly falling silent. He gave a smirk at Derek, but even that seemed forced. “See you next week in school!” he called, and hurriedly left.

Derek had never been so confused.

Derek was no stranger to fucking up, but usually he knew he had fucked up. There was something, at least one thing, that showed him that he did something wrong. Here? He had no clue what had happened.

Stiles had simply gone from being super friendly and nice and flirty to… to this. He was sitting in a chair, as far from Derek as he could with it still being socially acceptable. It wasn’t like he was being purposefully rude or anything… he was being nice, but it was forced, not like before.

Stiles handed him a stack of papers with a forced smile on his face. “Okay, you can keep on of this copies, in case you need it for revision. Don’t worry about this: I’ll look through it again and give it to Harris tomorrow.” He announced, standing up to leave.

Derek looked up at him, upset. Normally, if he came to his house, Stiles would stay a little longer, at least until Cora and Peter were home. He never left this early. “Are you going already?” he asked.

Stiles gave him an impatient scowl. “I’m not always having sex with others, you know?” he told him, and Derek stepped back.

Was that…? Was that what Stiles thought of him? Did Stiles think he kept him around just because of the sex? “I never thought that you did.” Said the werewolf in the end, and Stiles’ face fell.

“Aw, man. It’s my fault, sorry, I’m being a dick. It’s not like I was expecting you to think about me anyway else, I’m just your fuck buddy…” he sighed, running a hand through his hair.

Isaac and Boyd were right: if he didn’t try and fix it somehow, their friendship was going to highly suffer from this. He needed to DTR, or whatever. The green eyed boy took a deep breath. “I don’t think of you as just my fuck buddy.” He said, emphasizing on the just.

Stiles looked up at him, his expression immediately hardening. Derek ignored the warning from his eyes and kept talking. “I like you, Stiles. As more than a-”

“Don’t you fucking dare finish that sentence, Derek Hale.” Hissed Stiles, and Derek looked at him in confusion. Stiles looked furious, and a step away from tears. The werewolf could smell the frustration, anger and sadness rolling off him in waves. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

Derek stepped forward, feeling his heart break just a little. He wanted Stiles, more than he thought he would. In those few weeks the boy had managed to get under his skin, managed to find himself a place in Derek’s heart, and Derek wanted to keep him. “Stiles, please, I like you. I really do, and I don’t want-”

Stiles closed his eyes and when he opened them again, there was no trace of tears in them, just pure anger. But it wasn’t as fierce as Stiles probably wished it was. “You don’t like me, Derek. We are nothing more than fuck buddies, and now, we are not even that.” He decided, holding his bag tighter on his bag.

Derek looked at him desolated, when it was clear that Stiles was not going to acknowledge whatever Derek had said to him. “Then what are we?” he asked instead.

The brunette looked at him for a few more seconds, and then stormed out of the room, leaving the house without saying anything more.

Malia was in the room a few moments later with Erica, both girls eating ice cream from their cups. The smiles fell from their lips when they saw Derek standing in the middle of his room, looking completely defeated, and they both stepped in.

All Derek could say was “Cora was right. It did end in tears.” Before unsubtly wiping under his eyes, which burned with more unshed tears.

“So, what happened between you and Stiles?” she had spoken to him only twice in his entire life, and already Derek had come to despise the sound of her voice.

Isaac gave him a wary look, as they both turned around to face Heather, who looked completely at ease talking to them. Her hair was held up in a bun, and she was smiling friendly, although she looked anything but.

Derek glared down at her. “What do you want?” he asked instead, and the girl elbowed him jokingly.

“Not answering my question is rude, Derek.” She said instead, and the werewolf didn’t change his expression. Whatever she wanted, he wanted it to be quick and over as soon as possible.

She gave a sigh. “I wish there could be an easier way to do this.” Her expression darkened. “You really aren’t making this easy, Hale.” She said in the end, and Derek felt a threatening growl starting in his chest.

She stilled for a moment, listening in for a few seconds, then threw her arms around his neck, bringing her lips to her cheek. “I really want to help you, pup.” She whispered, her lips brushing against his skin.

Derek heard a gasp as he managed to push her off him, and almost snarled at her. Paige was standing not too far away, looking furious at both Derek and Heather. Stiles walked right past them, not even glancing in their direction, but Derek could smell the anger that was with no doubt directed at him. Allison and Scott were running after him, twin expression of disappointment on their faces as they glanced at Derek, like they were offended by his behaviour.

Heather smiled. “Hate watching them leave, but love watching them go, eh?” she asked, laughing airily, before sauntering away, ignoring Paige as she headed towards her lesson.

Isaac put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s a real harpy, and I don’t even know what her actual goal is.” Derek gritted his teeth and grabbed on his backpack.

“We have chemistry, let’s go.” He said in the end, and all but dragged Isaac along with him towards his lesson.

They had barely stepped in the classroom, when he spotted Stiles standing at Harris’ desk. The brunette didn’t look up at them, while the teacher just glared at him. “Stilinski, I still fail to see-”

“You fail at a lot of stuff, teaching among those, sir, but this isn’t the point. I have to go now.” He said, more harshly than Derek had ever heard him speak to anyone, then slammed a stack of papers on the desk and left the classroom, not glancing at Derek as he did so.

Derek didn’t look at him either, just made his way towards his desk, where Boyd was already waiting for them, an expression of pity and ‘I told you so’ on his face. Jackson’s glare intensified when he saw Derek, while Scott shot him another disapproving look and made to follow Stiles outside.

“McCall, exit that door, and I will fail you in chemistry!” shouted Harris, and Scott stopped immediately, walking back towards his seat with a pout.

For almost two hours, Derek had to suffer through Jackson intensely glaring at him from behind while Scott stared at where his best friend had disappeared like a lost puppy. When finally, the end of the class rung, he turned around to glare right back at Jackson. “What is your fucking problem?!” he almost growled at the boy, but Jackson didn’t even look startled at him.

He stepped right back until he was standing in front of Derek. “You have fucked up with my plans.” He said, and uh? “I had my speech ready, all the things I was going to threaten you with carefully written, and you ruined my entire schedule. Why did you break up with Stiles?” he asked, and Derek looked at him puzzled for a moment.

Who did Jackson think he was? The world didn’t turn around him. “I didn’t break up with him. He broke up with me.” The words tasted bitter in his mouth. “Not that there was anything to break up. We weren’t dating.”

Scott looked at him reproachfully. “You should know better than think that you two weren’t dating.” He said, blinking up at him.

What was their problem? “We weren’t. Stiles made that pretty damn clear.” He told them, and now Jackson gave a huge sigh.

“That fucking idiot. He’s still worried about Heather.” He muttered, and Scott looked at him in understanding. “Oh, shit. We need to talk to him.” He announced, and started dragging Jackson along with him.

Isaac scrambled to his feet. “Jackson, wait!” he called, and Scott finally let go of him. Derek quickly slipped out of the room and left the two boys alone.

The blue eyed beta bit his lower lip as he looked at the other boy, but Jackson didn’t rush him and simply sat down on one of the desk with a friendly expression. He squinted his eyes at him. “Are you regretting yesterday?” he asked, suddenly, and Isaac started shaking his head, blushing.

He ran a hand through his hair. “I like you.” He said in the end, and Jackson gave him a small smile, more pleased than teasing. “And I want to be your boyfriend, but… I don’t… you… different…”

Jackson huffed an amused laugh and arched an eyebrow at him. “Are you talking about the fact that you are asexual?” he asked, and Isaac looked at him surprised.

“You… you knew?” he asked, nervous.

Jackson suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, not wanting to seem indelicate. “Lydia and Stiles explained it to me ages ago when they first met Cora. I just recognised the ring. Black ring, middle finger of right hand equals symbol of asexuality.” He explained, and Isaac bit his lip.

“And you’re okay with that?” he asked, nervously, because no way it was that easy. Derek was way hotter than he was, and it had been hard for him to get a girlfriend or a boyfriend.

Jackson finally jumped off the table and walked towards him. He cradled Isaac’s face in his hands and kissed him on the nose. “Listen up, you idiot. Sex does not define a relationship, and I like you enough to forgo any sort of sexual thing that makes you uncomfortable.” He promised. He blushed a little. “Kissing is okay, right? You didn’t look angry when I kiss-”

Isaac interrupted him by pecking him slowly on the lips, his cheeks flushed. “Yeah, I like kissing.” He whispered on Jackson’s lips and Jackson laughed again, kissing him.

They left the room holding hands, and Isaac was surprised when they reached the canteen and Lydia and Allison were the only ones from Jackson’s group sitting there. He looked at him curiously. “Does Stiles like Derek?” he asked, and Jackson looked up at the sky.

“He pretends not to, because he’s scared that if he gets in a relationship with him, Heather is going to fuck shit up. And he likes Derek too much to risk him getting hurt, so he’s being a dick and pretending he never cared.” Explained the lacrosse captain, and something about the way he looked towards Derek’s table when he spoke made Isaac think that he knew more than he let on. But then he turned to Isaac again, and the moment was gone.

Jackson kissed him again. “After break you should come to the stands. Stiles is doing his cheerleading thing, but the Sophomores will be going on runs in the woods near it later. And obviously, I will have to go for supervision. See you then?” he asked, and Isaac nodded.

He walked back towards were Malia, Kira, Boyd and Derek were all sat, looking around for Erica. “Dude, where is your girlfriend?” he asked, and Boyd shrugged.

“She is with Stilinski, training.” He said, and stole a look at Derek.

The werewolf bit on his apple glaring at them all. “I’m not going to die because you said his name, you know?”

Malia snorted. Then she leant forward towards him, Kira’s hand in her hair. “So are you coming to see Erica and the cheerleading team practice, then? They have the shortest skirts.” She added playfully, grinning when Kira narrowed her eyes at her.

Derek would have said no, but Isaac and Boyd were both looking at him with earnest expression on their faces, and he had to show them that he truly didn’t care about Stiles, that he really had moved on. “Sure.” He said in the end, but both boys looked more concerned at this.

+

Lydia cornered Stiles in one of the classrooms, Jackson standing next to her. The boy gave a huge sigh and a playful smile. “What do I owe this visit to?” he asked, and Lydia and Jackson just stared at him with matching scowls. Thank god they had never gotten together; can you imagine?

Lydia crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you think you are doing?” she asked.

Stiles glanced between her and Jackson, with a frown on his face. “What do you mean?” he asked her back, and Jackson rolled his eyes.

“Cut the bullshit, Stilinski. Why are you not dating Hale anymore?” he asked.

Stiles gave him a look. “I thought you hated him.” He hedged.

Jackson didn’t look impressed. “I don’t hate him, I am just looking out for you like you always do for us. You were the first to tell me to try it with Isaac, and it worked. Returning the favour.”

Stiles shrugged, biting his thumbnail. “I was not dating him in the first place.” He commented, and the two of them exchanged exasperated looks.

“Stiles. You don’t need to-” started Lydia, but Stiles interrupted her.

“You are not even really trying with Cora, so… how about you fix your love problems, first?” he asked her, and Lydia pursed her lips.

“I am working on it, and now be quiet and listen to me.” She snapped, and Stiles crossed his arms, scowling at the floor. “You like him.” She said, and Stiles huffed.

“Wow, what gives.” He muttered, and Lydia ignored him.

“There is no reason for you not to date him.” She said, and now Stiles looked at her, his hands in fist.

“I have a reason not to date him. I can’t date him!” he hissed, and Jackson arched an eyebrow.

“Is it Theo?” he asked abruptly, and Stiles looked at him surprised. None of them even said his name anymore except for him. He hugged himself and refused to meet their eyes.

“I can’t… he wouldn’t want me to move on from him. And he deserves me to respect his wishes.” He whispered, blinking hard.

Lydia gave a sigh. “Of course he would want you to move on-” she started.

“No he wouldn’t.” interrupted her Jackson. She gave him a glare, while Stiles looked at him surprised. Jackson gave them a grin. “Because he was a selfish asshole like you and me, and he really would not have wanted you to move on. However, he would not have wanted you to live your life alone, refusing to love anyone else and refusing to let yourself be loved.” He explained, earnestly, and Stiles looked down at his feet.

“Stiles, listen. Theo loved you, and he will still love you even if you started loving someone else. He knows that you won’t forget him. Dating someone will not stop you from doing so.” Lydia smiled gently. “You can love more than one person at time.” She said.

Stiles looked at them both. “Heather?” he said, after a few seconds.

Jackson’s eyes narrowed, and Lydia almost snarled at the name. “We’ll get her, I can promise you that. And she will pay for what she has done to Theo.” She looked at Stiles with determination. “You will avenge him.” She promised.

+

Erica jumped right up again, exhibiting in daring backflip, while Stiles caught her from where he was standing on the human pyramid. He had sweat beads tickling down his forehead, and his shorts were even more high up than usual. Derek had to look away from the line of his tights more than once, and every single time Boyd would catch him looking and bat him on the shoulder.

Isaac had met Jackson earlier on to tell him about the detention he and Malia had managed to land themselves in, and then had departed, leaving Kira, Boyd and Derek as the only ones watching the sophomores and the cheerleading team exercise.

Lydia was standing over with Allison, as the young archer practiced her bow skills with the rest of the archery club, but more often than not her attention was directed to the sophomores.

Stiles worked as per usual, but it wasn’t hard to notice how he wasn’t as enthusiastic as usual that day. He looked like he had slept badly the last few days, and even as he shimmied and pirouetted, he seemed off.

Derek was not even surprised when he called off the training earlier than usual, nodding at Scott before disappearing back in the changing rooms. Boyd went after Erica not too long after that. Was Stiles sad about what had happened between the two of them? Derek wished he would talk to him, but he had pride. He was not going to beg Stiles to come back.

The sophomores had just ran off in the woods when he noticed Heather walking out of them, looking immensely pleased as she joined where Allison was teaching a new shooting technique. Derek was not proud to say he leant in to listen.

Heather grinned at Allison. “Hey, Allison. How are you doing today?” she asked, looking unaware at the way Allison’s jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed at her.

Lydia was standing not too far away, lips in a thin line as she glared at her. Allison didn’t deign her of a look.  “This is not a place for you, Trainor. You are not in the archery team.” She said in the end, snapping an arrow right in the bullseye.

Heather didn’t seem bothered at all by the display of anger. “Yeah, okay. Just wanted to speak to you.” She said.

The brunette shrugged, not looking at her. “Then speak.” She encouraged, her expression anything but friendly.

The blonde rolled her eyes. “I just wanted to warn you, nothing you do is going to save Stiles. I angered him enough once, you think I can’t do it again? All that darkness within… yum.” She laughed, licking her lips.

Allison finally turned to look at her, not a hint of expression on her face. “Is that a threat? We don’t appreciate that in our school.” She said evenly, and Heather sneered at her.

“Are you not tired of playing teacher and students? It’s not like this is actually what you are going to do with your life, is it?” she asked, and Lydia stepped forward.

“Miss Trainor, please leave the pitch, before we are forced to call a teacher or send you to the headmaster. Threats and violent speech are not allowed in this school. Have I been clear?” she asked, her eyes not wavering from Heather’s.

The blonde glared at her, and then walked off, looking a little confused and annoyed, muttering “They are human?” to herself.

Jackson gave her an angry look when she passed, while Scott anxiously looked over at his girlfriend, not wasting any time on Heather. And then Liam came barging through the trees, holding Hayden in his arms.

Derek froze, looking at the younger McCall- who was incredibly fast- running towards them with his girlfriend in his arms. Cora and Mason were running close to him, and Scott met them halfway. Derek and Kira made their way towards the group of students, wanting to make sure of what had just happened.

The moment he stopped close enough, he smelt it. The smell of a rogue wolf, and the blood coming out of a bite from Hayden’s side. Even she smelt like a wolf, which meat that the bite had officially taken.

Scott took the unconscious girl from his brother. “I will take her with me, what happened?” he asked, looking at the sophomores.

Mason was the one who spoke. “We were running, and then we heard Hayden scream, and when we got there, she was bleeding and crying. It was intense.” He explained, and Liam levelled him with one single look.

He glanced at his older brother. “Will she be all right?”

Lydia appeared next to them. “She will if you let me and Scott check up on her. Jackson, Ally already ran in the woods to gather the rest of the students, do me a favour and go with her.” she instructed, and Jackson nodded once and ran inside.

Her and Scott walked away in the opposite direction, Lydia muttering under her breath as she fiddled with the matching jewels that all of them seemed to have. Lydia had them in the form on earrings, Allison as a bracelet, Jackson as a necklace, Scott as a key holder and Stiles as an ankle bracelet. Even Liam had once in his pocket as a phone case.

Derek made to follow Lydia and Scott. “Wait, Lydia I think…” he started, and she gently but firmly pushed him away.

“We have it under control. Don’t worry about her.” she promised, and Liam glared at him, before walking away towards Brett and Mason and Corey.

Cora appeared next to him, and Derek nodded at her. “You smelt that, didn’t you?” he asked, and she nodded.

“We need to speak to Peter and mum.” She decided, and Derek agreed.

Talia stared at her three children from where she was sat at the top end of the dining table, her brows furrowed. Peter was sitting next to her, rolling his eyes and shaking his head in amusement, while their dad sat next to Talia looking unsure.

Cora clasped her hands and moved a little forward. “Mum, you have to believe us! We are not lying.” She expressed.

Talia made to speak, but Peter cut right in. “We are not calling you liars. You definitely believe in what you are saying.” He commented, arching an eyebrow at them.

Laura glared at her uncle. “Listen, Uncle Peter, I’ve been in this school for a while. There is something weird about Lydia Martin and her group.” She said, supporting her younger siblings with a hand on the shoulder.

Peter rolled his eyes, and Derek shot him a glare. “Me and Cora smelt it. It was a werewolf who bit Hayden. And they just took her away, not even calling a teacher.”

Talia looked at both of them gravely. “You must understand what you are implying. Are you saying that Deaton’s kids are both hunters? Liam is Cora’s age, and Hayden is his girlfriend. Chris Argent is our ally! You can’t just go and accuse them of being hunters like this.” She told them, and Peter looked satisfied.

Cora and Derek slumped in their chairs in defeat, but Laura didn’t budge. “We are not accusing them of being hunters. But they know more than they let on. Hayden has totally been bitten, and even you have said something about a pack of werewolves in our territory.” She explained, and Talia nodded again.

“Of course you are right.” She glanced back at Cora and Derek. “It’s not like I don’t trust you two. But we need to have more evidence if you are going to say something like this, all right?” she asked, and Cora and Derek both nodded, although not happy about it. But she was the Alpha.

Peter made to stand up and leave, but Talia stopped him with one look. “You and I need to talk.” She decided, and Peter shrugged.

“I knew this time would have come eventually.” He sighed, and headed towards her office, one of the few soundproofed rooms in the house.

Talia turned to her kids. “We will run the perimeters and the preserve tonight, and check if we catch the rogue’s scent. Your dance is on the full moon. Keep an eye open on the Romero girl, all right?” she asked, and Cora nodded, grateful for the fact that their mother didn’t completely dismiss them.

Robert Hale, their dad gave them a nod. “I know you are trying to be helpful, so don’t worry about Peter. I think he knows more than he lets on.” He said, grimacing at the idea of his brother in law. Then he turned back at them. “Plus, in a few weeks the family will be back here again, right? Something to look forward to.” He said, enjoying the twin grimaces on all three of his children’s face.

Camila remained unaware, playing with her dad in the other room, and after a moment, Laura joined them.

When the night fell and Robert- who was Talia’s mate, yes, but was very much human- Parrish and Camila left to stay somewhere safe until the pack came back, Talia escorted her children and Peter out in the preserve.

“Okay, I will take the north border, Laura will take the south. Peter will check the perimeter of the school. Cora you will be on the outskirts of the Preserve, and I want Derek closer to the town. Everything clear?” she demanded, and in answer they all fully shifted and howled at their Alpha, then ran.

Derek loved running like this. His wolf was completely black with blue eyes, similar to his mother in all but the eyes. Peter and Laura often teased him and called him ‘Mama’s boy’ and Derek didn’t even blush anymore. Shut up.

He loved the feeling of his paws against the Earth, the differences in the way he watched the world from his animal’s perspective. It was somewhat unsettling, being a wolf, feeling like a wolf but having those human’s thoughts in the background, but other times it felt nice.

He saw the lights on in the Stilinski-Argent mansion and he saw Paige sneaking out of her bedroom, going god knows where at this time of the night. Everything seemed mostly normal in Beacon Hills.

He turned around to ran the perimeter again, when he caught the scent of magic and wolf bane. The wolf stopped for a few moments and howled to the night, following the scent only once he heard his Alpha’s answering.

The scent was getting stronger as he followed it, like a trail that had been purposefully left for him. The scent of the rogue was mixed with the scent of magic, and although there wasn’t anyone’s particular scent, Derek could only discern that this had been a chase, and that whoever was chasing the animal was powerful.

He felt Laura’s wolf running alongside him and Peter on the other side, but it took him a few seconds to realise that they were actually all heading back to their house. The trail was heading towards the Hale House.

They stopped once they got back to their house, and Cora and Talia where already there, looking in almost shock at the scene before their eyes.

There was a werewolf, who looked most definitely rogue, laying in front of them. He was surrounded by a thick circle of mountain ash, and unable to move, although he tried to struggle. A knife wound was visible on his shoulder, bleeding dark blood and the smell of wolf bane came from it.

But most importantly, he had claw mark signs on his stomach, and from the way they were bleeding, it was obvious it hadn’t been a normal wolf who attacked him, but an Alpha werewolf. But if it hadn’t been his mother, then who?

Talia snapped out of it first, turning to look at Peter, who just nodded. Then she turned towards Cora. “Call Deaton.” She instructed, and pointed at Laura. “You can go home for today if you want, we will talk about it later. Derek, go to sleep if you want to.” Derek shook his massive wolf head, and his mother arched an eyebrow. “Or you can for a run. You still have school tomorrow, don’t forget that.” She instructed, and Derek ran away, letting his senses work for him.

He wasn’t sure what he was looking for. The alpha who had attacked the rogue? If it had been an Alpha, why the mountain ash and wolf bane? How did he immobilize him? Derek didn’t know, but it was clear his mother and Peter had a pretty accurate guess. They didn’t seem to concerned, just smelt a little surprised.

After half an hour running, he turned back in human form, and made his way towards Beacon Hill’s small Andronico’s. It was open 24/24 almost every day, but it was usually empty at 11.30 in the night.

Lydia was the first one to see him, and she froze when she noticed him. She was standing next to the cake display with a leather jacket on and mud covered boots, and she seemed more alarmed at having been spotted next to the cakes than having been spotted in a shop in the middle of the night.

Allison was not too far away from her, actually holding a bag of crisps in her hands, with Jackson trying simultaneously to look interested in what Scott was saying and wiping mud on the boy’s own jacket. They all looked like a leather jacket little gang.

Lydia pursed her lips, glaring at him. “It’s a school night. What are you doing here, Hale?” she asked, frowning at him, and Derek levelled her with a look of his own.

“What are you doing here?” he asked instead, and they exchanged shifty looks with each other, before giving him the fakest of the smiles. Jackson rolled his eyes.

“Buying food, are you blind?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at him. “What does it look like we’re doing?” he shot back.

Derek picked up a packet of biscuits from one of the stands, not looking at them. “I don’t know… hunting?” he asked, and he heard the gasp coming from Scott. He looked up to see Scott looking at him offended, Jackson staring at him like he was the dumbest person he had ever met, Allison trying to hold back a laugh and Lydia looking at him with a single raised eyebrow.

“Hunting may not be banned in California, but it’s not really condoned in Beacon Hills.” She reminded him, and this time Jackson snorted in amusement, and Allison turned her back to him, shoulder shaking in silent laughter.

They knew he knew something was up, but they also knew he wasn’t entirely sure what exactly was up. He made to say something rude, when the doors opened again, and Chris Argent walked in, holding Stiles by the scruff of his neck. The teenagers froze abruptly. Chris gave a huge sigh.

“What the hell are you doing.” He asked, glaring at all of them and giving Derek a confused stare.

Stiles finally managed to get out of his grasp. “We were strolling. Yup, strolling, not doing anything illegal. Not at all. We were just here. Buying. Food. Because that’s legal, and we weren’t anywhere else, just buying food here perfectly legally…”

“Stiles.” Interrupted him Derek, amused despite himself, and the boy immediately shut up giving Derek a nervous smile.

Chris shook his head and glared at Scott. “Your father called, asking where in the hell were you and why weren’t you answering your phone.” Scott reached for his pockets, but Stiles shook his head.

“You left it at my house. You all left it at the house.” He reminded them, and Jackson groaned.

“How much trouble are we in?” he asked Allison’s father, and Chris rolled his eyes.

“I haven’t seen you.” He said in the end, earning a grin from Stiles and Scott and a little laugh from Allison.

Lydia gave him an approving look. “Thank you, Mr Argent.” She said politely, but she was grinning as well.

The group left, but Stiles stayed, looking at Derek with a strange look in his eyes. Derek stared right back, hoping he didn’t look as hopeful as he felt inside. Cora would have told him to not show emotion, but how was that working out for her? (Derek wasn’t blind, he had finally put two and two together and figured out who was Cora crushing so hard on)

Stiles stepped in front of him, and stared up at him with intensity. “I am an asshole.” He said firstly, and Derek snorted. Stiles smirked too, but then turned serious. “I had some time to think, and Lydia, Scott, Allison, Malia and Erica all talked to me and told me how dumb I was being.”

Derek’s eyes widened in surprise. “Lydia?” he asked, and Stiles grimaced.

“Believe me, I was surprise too. But she was very #TeamDerek while she told me in details how fucking dumb I was being and how you don’t deserve me putting my head up my ass, and how Theo wouldn’t want me to do that.” He shrugged.

Derek looked at him in anticipation, and Stiles blushed a little. “And what is the verdict?” asked the werewolf.

Stiles reached out to cupped his cheek with a hand. “I think she’s right, and I really really like you. But we have to be smart about this.” He said, and Derek tried not to show his disappointment. Stiles noticed and took one hand in his. “Hey, hey, listen. I like you. And I want to give it a chance, I want to date you. But not right now, we can’t. Because there is a lot of shit that you may not even know about going on, and I have no intention of letting Heather or anyone else hurt you. Am I clear?”

Derek looked at him, searching in his golden eyes. He moved closer to Stiles. “Does this have to do with Hayden and whatever bit Theo in the woods?” he asked, and Stiles seemed reluctant as he nodded.

“Just…. Stay away from Heather. I promise you, this will work out. I have faith.” He paused for a second, then kissed him on the cheek. “Just like you have faith in that little warlock who is supposed to be protecting Beacon Hills with his friends.” He said in the end, and Derek smiled back, confused. Then he let go of his hand, and Stiles walked out, greeted by Scott and Allison’s loud cheers and Jackson’s whistling.

Derek just smiled like an idiot until the cashier asked him if he was going to buy something or not.

The next few days at school were confusing to say the least. His mother refused to talk to them about the werewolf they had encountered the other night, and everywhere he went, Heather was there.

He might be in class listening to the teacher talk, and when he turned to watch outside the window, there she was, her eyes boring into him. He was in the dining hall, queueing for food, and she would walk past him with a malicious grin on her face. He just left the boys toilet and here she was, standing not too far from him with a grin on her faces.

And it wasn’t even just that. There was a rumour going around the school that he and Stiles were already dating that Derek didn’t even know how it had been generated. The fact that neither Stiles or his friends was around the school much in those days was even more annoying.

But in a few days they were going to break up school for the holidays, so Derek wasn’t too bothered. Stiles had started texting him again, talking about anything that didn’t matter in the slightest and assuring him he would be at the party, but not addressing the rumours in the school. And although he had half hoped Stiles to go with him to the winter dance, Stiles announced that he had already promised Lydia to be her date.

When Cora found out, she was more than a little disappointed.

But Christmas holydays didn’t only mean the ball. It also meant the entire of his family back together again, and yes, Derek loved aunt Cordelia and cousin Licia, and all their kids, but he also loved having personal space and not having to worry about being caught doing something inappropriate by his all-knowing family.

But you can’t have everything you want. He settled for watching Hayden carefully, but the girl was never alone. She no longer smelled like a werewolf, but once Derek had growled lowly in his throat, and she had looked at him, eyes burning golf for a second. She also seemed to flinch at every single loud sound, but she was always with Liam or Allison, never alone.

The night of the formal came, and he went, along with Cora, Malia, Kira, Boyd and Erica. Isaac had been all but dragged away from them by Jackson, who had insisted that his boyfriend was coming with him, and everyone just rolled their eyes at him.

Cora fixed her hair for the nth time, biting her lower lip. Derek wasn’t sure what was bothering her more: seeing her crush, the full moon or making sure that Hayden didn’t attack people on the dance floor. She was wearing a simple blue dress that came to her feet, blue and almost purple, and Derek was mentally getting ready for the inevitable looks and comments that were going to follow her sister, because she looked good.

Malia and Kira were almost matching in red and white outfits. Malia’s dress was sleeveless, with a white décolleté and a short red skirt, while Kira’s dress was completely white with a red strap on her waist.

Erica had gone full classy black, and she was completely matching with Boyd in his serious suit. Derek instead was a navy suit, almost matching his sister’s dress.

The car stopped in the already full car park of the venue, and the little group made their way towards were the school dance was already in full swing. The first person they spotted were Allison and Scott, looking adorable in their outfits. Whoever had applied for prom queen this year was going to sweat.

Allison was wearing a blue dress that was short on the front but long at the back and she grinned when she spotted them coming inside. “Damn! Mia, Kya, you two look adorable, you are so cute.” She expressed, making Kira blush and Malia beam with pride. She had gone under hours of make-up and hair preparation with Cora for this, she had the right to be proud.

Scott fixed his suit and black bow tie, grinning at Boyd. “I think we all look like penguins, but Ally and the rest…” he gave a happy sigh, and Allison dimpled right back at him. Before they could walk in, Allison stopped him and Cora.

“If you wanted to know… Lydia and Stiles are inside already.” She explained, and then immediately walked away, giggling with her boyfriend.

Cora refused to meet Derek’s eye, and barged inside the dance floor, while her brother just huffed at her. He headed towards where he could see Liam and Hayden dancing, determined not to get distracted and keep an eye on both of them.

But then Isaac appeared in front of him with a drink, and handed it to him. Derek refused it, admiring his friend in his suit. The blue tie showed off the colour of his eyes, and the grey went perfectly with his blonde hair.

Derek grinned at him. “Looking good, Isaac.” He commented, and the blonde sat beside him blushing and punching him on the shoulder.

“Oh be quiet. Jackson picked it. He’s over there.” Said the blond, pointing at where Malia and the other boy were standing laughing and judging the people on the dancefloor. Derek took a look at his suit and arched an eyebrow.

“God, Isaac, you went all lovey dovey on me?! You are wearing matching suits?” he asked, eyeing the dark blue suit and waistcoat Jackson was wearing with an amused glint in his eyes. Isaac blushed harder, and pointed at someone else on the dancefloor.

“Shut up. Lydia is over there, and I think your sister is this close to walking down and kiss her.” he commented, and Derek snorted. Lydia really looked magnificent. Her hair was carefully styled on her head, and her dress was black and lacy, the skirts almost touching the floor in their length, and not doing so only thanks to the high heels she was wearing. “I am almost certain that Lydia will win prom queen.”

Derek frowned at his friend. “Doesn’t she need a partner for that?” he asked, and Isaac shook his head, the point of his ears turning pink.

“No, or it wouldn’t be fair because Lydia always wins prom queen. There is one prom queen, one prom king, one heterosexual couple, one lesbian couple and one gay couple. I think Stiles is the one that came up with it or something.” He explained, shrugging.

Derek looked at him knowingly. “Jackson wants you to win the gay couple thing, isn’t it?” he asked, amused, and Isaac just blushed further.

“Anyway.” Said the blond, clearing his throat. “Stiles is over there.” He commented.

Derek followed his gaze to where the brunette was dancing, a matte coat the same colour as Lydia’s lipstick and black trousers. Derek couldn’t stop staring at him. He looked absolutely perfect as he danced with Allison and Lydia, his hair carefully styled on top of his head, an expression of pure joy on his face.

And then he turned towards Derek, but his smile didn’t vanish. He waved at the boy, and Derek found himself waving back with a grin and Stiles sent him a kiss, as Lydia grabbed him and forced him to dance with her again.

Isaac elbowed him. “And you call me lovey dovey.” He complained, and Derek just arched an eyebrow, trying to hide his dopey smile.

“Am I matching his clothes?” he asked, and Isaac flipped him off.

He made to say something, when someone cleared their throat behind him. Derek turned around, almost fell at his feet when he saw Paige standing over him, looking nervous. She offered him a smile. “Derek. Wanna dance?” she asked.

Derek stared at her for a few seconds, taking in her golden dress and her nervous smile before standing up and nodding. Isaac just arched an eyebrow and disappeared again in the crowd, and Derek let her lead him on the dancefloor. He spotted Heather on the dancefloor and she gave them both a pitying look. She whipped her head and walked off, not sparing them another look.

Paige smirked at him after a few second of dancing. “I’m an asshole.” She said, in the end, and Derek almost smiled. In a way, Paige reminded him of Stiles, both with their brunette hair, moles, wit and sass.

“I was an asshole too.” He told her, and she laughed.

“Yeah, you kind of were. We were both assholes, and I’m sorry. But, I’m glad you are happy.” She said, and pointed towards where Stiles was drinking with Kira and looking at them with an adorable expression on his face. “Stilinski is honestly the cutest.” She said, and Derek gave her a severe look.

“Steer clear of him.” He threatened jokingly and she smirked.

Then she turned serious. “I cut ties with Heather. And you should watch out: she’s obsessed with Stiles. It’s freaky.” She told him, honestly. Derek nodded again, ignoring the uneasy feeling in his gut.

“Yeah. Thank you, Paige.” He leant in and kissed her cheek. “For everything.” He said, and Paige rolled her eyes.

“Someone had to put up with your shit, and I just did everyone else a favour.” She commented, and stepped back at the end of the song. She pushed him. “Go on, Stilinski got some moves!”

Derek laughed, feeling lighter now that Paige didn’t seem to hate him anymore. He grinned and stopped before Stiles, who simply grinned back. Scott whistled at them, and Stiles flipped him off. “Dance for me.” Said the brunette. Derek didn’t know how to dance. He did anyway.

+

Cora kept talking to her friend’s Tracy, even though she was aware of Lydia staring at her not too far away. The party was in full swing and in a while they were going (Stiles was going to) announce who had been voted for what.

Lydia finally decided she was done with it, and tapped Cora on her shoulder, fixing her with something that was close to a glare, but not harsh enough. “Dance with me.” She said, making it sound almost like an order.

Cora narrowed her eyes at her, and Lydia sighed. “Please?” she added, quietly.

The girl nodded and moved forwards, as they moved on the dancefloor with the music. Cora gave her an apologetic look when she almost stomped on her feet. “Sorry. Dancing is not my forte.” She explained, and Lydia gave her a genuine smile.

“I am not in the slightest surprised.” She said, and Cora laughed as well.

They kept dancing like this, laughing every time Cora stumbled and almost crashed them on the floor, for a few minutes. Then Cora finally let go of her, somewhat annoyed. “They are going to start calling the names in a few moments.” She told her, and Lydia looked almost disgruntled.

She reached with her arms around Cora’s neck and kissed her on the lips. “You better be still here when I get back. We have a dance to finish.” She said, grinning at the way Cora just stared at her dazedly, and then walked away.

Cora turned to look at Tracy, Mason, Corey, Brett, Liam and Hayden who had joined them and they all whistled at her. Brett grinned. “Damn, Corrie got game!” he whooped, and Cora hit him on the shoulder, unable to stop smiling.

Hayden looked excited at them. “Do you guys think I have a chance?” she asked, and they all grimaced at each other. Hayden had wanted to become prom queen since the year before, and yes, her dress was great, and yes she was very good looking, but… until Lydia Martin was in their school, there wasn’t a big chance of her winning.

Stiles appeared on the huge stage, looking insanely attractive in his suit. “Hot damn.” Chorused Mason, Brett and Tracy, while Liam just huffed annoyed.

Stiles grinned. “Hey, hey, you beautifuls! Welcome to BHHS’ annual formal winter dance! May I say, you all look stunning! If it was up to me, you would all be prom queens.” He told them, and the crowd laughed.

Scott laughed from where he was sitting not too far in the crowd. “Even the guys?” he asked, and Stiles nodded solemnly.

“Even the guys. You are already the queen of my heart, Scotty.” He told him, causing more laughs. Then he turned to the rest of the crowd.

“We shall start with the prom queen, obviously.” He took one of envelopes, while Ethan held the prom queen crown behind him. “The prom queen of this year is…” he took out the paper, Hayden looking hopeful next to Cora. “Lydia Martin!” he called, and the crowd erupted in cheers, drowning the few disappointed groans.

Lydia walked up the stage, looking at everyone with a dignified expression. Stiles winked at her. “You go, Lyds!” he called, as Ethan crowned her. She just stood there and waved at everyone.

Cora waved back, and she would have stayed and listened, but she had noticed Hayden was walking away. And it was her duty as friend to cheer her up. She heard Stiles calling up Danny as prom king, as she followed Hayden in the toilet.

The girl was standing in front of the mirror, breathing hard. Cora looked at her worried. “Hayden? Are you okay?” she asked.

Hayden growled, and Cora’s eyes widened. The full moon. Fuck. “First Liam who is obviously falling in love with Brett” what. “and now this! I am getting angry.” She growled, flashing her golden eyes at Cora.

“Allison said that I’m a beta like Liam and that he will look out for me. Then why is he just staring at Brett?” she growled again, and Cora could see that Hayden was trying hard to fight it off.

“Okay, Hayden, it’s okay, you just need to breath…” she started, but Hayden growled again, louder this time.

Cora was about to shift, and call out for Derek when someone else slipped in the bathroom.

Heather Trainor. She glanced down at both of them with an annoyed expression. “Liam is a beta too? This is interesting.” She said, and Cora growled at her. Heather just grinned again, as in the other room, Stiles crowned Allison and Scott as the cutest heterosexual couple. Then Heather did something with her hands, and everything went dark.

Derek stood in the middle of the house, fighting off the need to just jump out of the room and search for Cora himself. His mother had been clear: no one was supposed to leave the house until they had some sort of idea on what had happened to his sister. Didn’t mean Derek had to like that.

The door opened, and Cousin Licia walked in with the twins, who ran towards Laura and Camila with howls of laughter. It made Derek uneasy seeing all his relatives in the same house, seeing how his sister was still missing.

Finally, his mother appeared, and gave a low growl, her eyes shifting Alpha red. Neither her, nor anyone else had actually gone to sleep the day before, all of them frantically looking for Cora.

Stiles had insisted on driving Derek home, and he had sent a message to Erica begging her to pick up Cora and one to Cora telling her what had happened. But when he had gotten home and received a panicked text from Erica saying that she couldn’t find Cora and no answer from his sister, he had started to worry.

He had called Brett and all their friends, and found out that Hayden was missing too. He had sent messages to Jackson and his clique, but none of them had gotten back to him yet.

Talia gave a big sigh. “This is not how I wanted to greet you all.” She said, forcing a smile on her face. No one smiled back, not even the children. They could all feel the tension in the room.

“My daughter Cora is, as you can see, missing.” She pronounced, and Derek looked down at his feet. Erica- who had been called there with Boyd and Isaac since they were members of the Hale Pack- held tight on Malia’s hand, while the werecoyote seemed on the point of running outside to look for her cousin.

“I’ve contacted the hunter Chris Argent, and he promised help, although he doesn’t know who could have possibly kidnapped my little girl.” She said, and her face remained perfectly composed even as her voice broke at little.

Camila turned to look at her mom with a frown. “Is auntie Corrie okay?” she asked, and Robert Hale turned around to hide the evident tears in his eyes.

Laura gave her daughter a broken smile. “We don’t know, but we are going to find out.” She promised, kissing her on the head.

Boyd squeezed his shoulder and Isaac held his hand, and Derek let them because… what else could he do? They didn’t even know who took her, and Deaton wasn’t any closer to track them down. It was infuriating.

And that’s when the shootings started.

“Everyone on the ground, now!” shouted Peter, pulling down Malia and Erica and everyone else dived to the floor, kids crying as the shootings broke the windows of the house.

They didn’t last long, and they were immediately replaced by an awfully familiar voice. “Everybody out now!” called the voice of a woman, and Derek felt every single hair on his arms rise in absolute horror.

The voice laughed. “Playing hard to get? All right. Let me spell it out for you, if your nose can’t smell it. Your house is surrounded. We have your little pup. We also have a very hungry and very feral Alpha werewolf with us, and if you don’t start coming out of the house this instant, we are letting him go.” She expressed.

The werewolves all glanced at Talia, who was trying very hard not to wolf out and attack the bitch who had her daughter. Instead she looked at Deaton, who just nodded in agreement. Then she stood up first, and made her way outside.

Derek was the first to scramble to his feet to follow his mother, Isaac’s hand in his. Peter nudged Erica, Boyd and Malia to follow them, and slowly the entire Hale clan made their way outside.

Kate Argent was standing outside, her eyes gleaming as she watched the pack leaving the safety of their houses and coming outside. There were about 30 or more hunters, all of them armed to the teeth.

Kate grinned at Talia. “Hey, Tals! Long-time, no see.” She greeted, then pointed to the ground with her gun. “Y’all sit here.” She instructed, and only then they noticed that not only were they surrounded, but there was also a line of mountain ash all around them. Kate was not here to play games.

Kate sighed, staring at the house. “I would have preferred using traditional methods, like burning this fucking house to the ground. But the little witch needs you for something.” She conspired, and only then Derek noticed Heather, stepping away from the trees with a grin on her face.

Her eye caught Malia, who was sitting very close to the mountain ash barrier, and she barged into her. “Despite having been humiliated by you, I didn’t say anything. This doesn’t mean I forgot or forgave you.” She said, and raised her hand in one fluid motion.

Malia brought both hands to her throat, unable to open her mouth and breath, chocking inside. Peter looked horrified at his daughter. “Let her go! Please, let her go!” called Erica, trying to get Malia to breathe again.

Abruptly Heather let go, and kicked Malia straight in her face. Derek heard the noise of something breaking at the impact, and winced as Malia’s let out a whimper of pain and held her injured nose. Heather sneered. “Next time watch who you fuck around with.”

She snapped her fingers, and the scent of magic filled the entire place for an instant. When they blinked again, they weren’t in front of the Hale house anymore. They were in front of the Nematon, the big stump somewhere in the preserve.

And Cora was there, half unconscious still in her prom dress, with her hands locked behind her back with wolf bane. She looked at her family and sniffed pitifully. “Mum…” she whimpered, and Derek saw Talia’s eyes flashing red, but the woman didn’t other ways move.

The feral werewolf gave a low threatening growl, and Kate just hit it on the head. “Oh, shut up. It’s just Martha.” She decided, as a little group of hunters came forward, holding with their hands behind their backs a few other werewolves and two kids.

Heather made a hand motion and pushed the werewolves and the kids in, as if there wasn’t a mountain ash barrier, and they fell forwards. Derek and Peter helped them take off the masks that the hunters had put on their heads.

He wasn’t at all surprised to find Ethan, Aiden and Brett, and when one of the humans turned out to be Hayden he rolled his eyes to himself. But he was confused when he saw that the other human was Liam.

Liam glared as Brett finally helped him out of his mask, and first thing he did was check the werewolf for injuries. Hayden just retreated at the back, looking around her fearfully, but didn’t comment on it. “Brett, are you okay?” asked Liam, triple checking his face again.

Brett nodded, and cleared his throat. “Yeah, uh. Yes. I’m fine.” He promised, and Liam turned to glare at the hunters.

“What the fuck. Do you think. You. Are. Doing.” He spat, and walked until he was face to face to Kate Argent, the mountain ash barrier only thing separating them. Why didn’t he just cross the line?

Kate grinned. “I don’t remember ever meeting you.” She said pleasantly, and Liam growled. He fully growled at her, and Derek’s and many of the other’s eyes widened, when his scent didn’t change, remained human, but his eyes flashed gold and his fangs showed. Brett just stared confused, but Peter didn’t seem in the slight bothered.

Then he threw his head back and howled as loud as he could, before Kate silenced him with a punch in the face. “What the hell do you think you are doing? I can kill you in a matter of seconds, you know?” she asked, threating, holding him from his chin.

Liam smiled boldly at her. “But you won’t. And I was just calling someone who can deal with your asses.” He told her, and she narrowed her eyes at him, before punching him in the face again.

Liam stumbled back, fresh blood tickling down his nose, but he just grinned at her as she pointed her gun at him. Heather glared at Kate. “Not now!” she snapped, and Kate just glared harder and didn’t let go.

Heather scowled, and sent her gun flying away from her grasp. “I said. Not. Now!” she hissed again, and Kate glared at her.

Brett rushed towards Liam, cradling his face in his hands with a sever look on his face. “What do you think you are doing?” he asked, and Liam wiped his blood with the sleeve of his arms.

“Riling them up until they show up to save us.” He told him, shrugging.

Brett gave him a pained look. “Who can save us? No one knows where we are.” He reminded him, and Liam gave him a sly grin.

“I called them. They will be here in a minute or so.” He confided, and now all the wolves were staring at him, even Talia. They were talking too lowly for the hunters to hear them.

“Who?” asked Malia, still coughing a little. Peter glanced nervously at her, and she waved him off.

Liam rolled his eyes. “The Beacon Hills protectors.” He announced, and Laura gave him a look.

“Liam, come on. It’s just a tale that they tell kids. They are not real.” She told him, confused.

“No, I know them personally. And don’t go around saying how cool they are please. They suck. The princess is always moody, the werewolf wouldn’t hurt a fly unless she was being mean to the huntress, the huntress always has a cookie to share, the villain/hero is a douche and the warlock is nosy.” He announced, and everyone just stared at him like he was being ridiculous.

Hayden spoke. “I believe him.” She said, seriously, and Liam seemed to notice her only then. He made to say something, and she waved him off. “I get it, now. You are a werewolf too, and you like Brett. That’s why you got super mad when Cora attacked him, right?” at Liam nod, she relaxed. “Then it has nothing to do with me. I’m fine with it.”

Before anyone else could say anything, a voice spoke. “Also Liam is baby bitch.” It said, and Liam looked up and rolled his eyes.

Someone else spoke then, amused. “He’s slandering our name, isn’t he? I say we let him die.”

“Shut up, both of you.” Hissed someone else, and Derek was sure he had heard them speaking before. The hunters didn’t seem aware of them, and neither seemed Heather, but Cora was frowning.

“Anyway, back on task.” Said that voice again, and finally Derek recognised it as Stiles’ voice. “The moment I say three, you all should close your ears. Trust us, you don’t want to hear her scream.” Said Stiles, and Derek was getting more confused by the second. What was Stiles doing there?

“One. Two.” Everyone closed their ears, and Laura and the other mothers forced the kids to do the same. A girl jumped off a tree, lading square on her feet. Lydia.

Derek stared at the girl for a second, as the hunters made to attack her. She just raised her hands, and captured the life force of the tree around, blocking Cora from anyone else’s view.

“Three.” Said Stiles, and Lydia screamed.

Her scream was nothing Derek had ever heard before. It hurt his ears even though he was clasping them shut. And suddenly it hit him. A woman who can scream you into oblivion and control the element of water. A banshee. Lydia Martin.

A werewolf descended on them, and shifted mid-air, running towards the feral wolf. He was smaller than his mother, but he looked lethal at that point. A boy that reached Alpha status through pure force of will and determination. He controls the fire, like the fire in his heart. A true Alpha Werewolf. Scott McCall.

He spotted Allison throwing arrow after arrow against the hunters, arrows that sent them lying on the floor, asleep. A girl who can pierce through your heart with a single arrow and will do it, controlling the winds and the air around her. She has the spirit of a Huntress of Artemis. Allison Argent.

Jackson was close behind Scott, his hands turning scale green as he simply touched their neck and suddenly they were on the floor, immobilized. Then he turned to Scott, shifting in beta werewolf shift and helping his friend. A shapeshifter whose soul is split in two animal parts in a human body, who controls mother Earth. A Kanima and a werewolf at the same time. Jackson Whittemore.

Stiles broke the mountain ash circle with a snap of his fingers, and charged right towards Heather. The warlock. And a spark who descended in a sea of monsters, looked at death in the eye and walked away. Stiles Stilinski.

Derek stared at them incredulous for a few seconds. Lydia was summoning the water from the roots of the trees, and using it to keep all the hunters at bay. She rounded them in an angle, before quickly freeing Cora of her chains. The werewolf smiled softly at her. “You owe me a dance. You are going to be my date at the next formal.” She slurred, and Lydia grinned for a moment. Then she turned to the hunters fighting them off.

Scott growled and shifted back in human form in a split second. “Alpha Hale! Please take everyone away, we’ve got this!” he told them, as he kicked another hunter in the face, and that seemed to snap his mother out. She turned, to the pack.

“Laura, Peter, Robert! Help everyone go, hold the children and…” she started, and Jackson dropped elegantly next to them, Cora in his arms.

He passed her to Isaac. “Get her away from here, she’s fine, she just needs sleep. Liam, Stiles has left a portal open!” he called, and the beta nodded looking at the rest of the Pack as he took one of Derek’s cousins in his arms.

“Come on! Don’t worry about them!” he called, and they all started running. Derek didn’t, looking around for Stiles. He saw him running after Heather, a look of intent in his face. The spark stopped for a moment, and eyed the situation.

He took a couple of vials from his pocket and threw them in Allison’s direction. “Thing One!” he called, and Allison jumped and caught them with no difficulty, immediately rolling them to Jackson.

“Venom!” she ordered, and Jackson caught them with his human hand, already spilling kanima venom inside in a few seconds. He threw it back at Allison, who sent it towards Stiles. “Thing Two!” she called, sending one to him and Stiles disappeared towards where Heather had gone.

Derek ran after him, ignoring his mum’s callings, as Allison punched her aunt on the face. She then threw one of the vials in the air, and then broke it with a clean shot of her arrows, sending the content to one of the last group of hunters left standing, while Jackson and Scott took away their arms and surrounded them. Then Lydia screamed again, right as Derek left the clearing, holding his ears, and they all dropped on the floor.

He found Stiles and Heather easily, the smell of their magic and the sound of their fight resounding in the woods. The Nematon was thrumming with energy under them. Stiles glared at her. “You think you can get away again? Because this time I’m going to avenge Theo, no matter what!” he called, sending another jet of light at her.

She grimaced, him being more powerful than her. She was dark magic, and she had not managed to finish the sacrifice of Cora Hale and the Hale Pack. She couldn’t overpower him until he was using his pure magic. “You failed once to protect him, and you are going to fail him again!” she snarled.

Stiles gave an ugly laugh. “You think we didn’t know what you were up to? We grew, Heather. We saved Scott from being a feral omega, we stopped Lydia from dying with her banshee powers, we proved to Allison that you can be a hunter without killing people and we gave Jackson his humanity back. You caused all that, and we stopped it.” Another jet of energy, that she barely missed. “You think we didn’t know you wanted to use Derek against me? Try to turn me back into the Nogitsune like you managed to do when Theo died? I learnt from my mistake.”

Heather spotted Derek then, and she gave a snarl as she shot dark magic towards him. Stiles stopped her effortlessly, and this time the jet of light caught her, pushing her against one of the trees. She winced in pain, unable to stand. “Are you going to kill me, now? Do it, Stilinski. I dare you.”

Stiles smiled, a disarming and terrible smile. His eyes shifted purple. “Derek step aside.” He ordered, and Derek did, unable to look away from Stiles.

“I call Earth to me, to trap you and remind you of your roots.” He chanted, and suddenly the roots of the tree she fell against were around her ankles, making her unable to move. Derek gasped, moving even further away, as Jackson and the rest appeared. Lydia smirked.

“I call Fire to me, to burn the dark magic of your heart.” Flames were suddenly around her, and although she screamed in pain, she wasn’t burning. Derek looked horrified at Scott, but he was merely glaring at Heather.

“I call Water to me, to extinguish the power of your spark.” He looked up to the sky, a purple aura around him. The water mixed with the flames, and Heather was shaking, not crying out anymore but looking at Stiles in horror.

“You can’t do this! Stop, stop!” she shouted, but everyone else ignored her.

“I call Air to me, to dissipate the essence of all that is not real.” He said, and sparks flew from his hands, as a small tornado of air, enveloped her with her flames and waves.

Stiles bit his lips shaking a little, and Allison stepped up behind him. “We call the fifth element.” She said, her eyes shifting grey.

“We call the fifth element.” Said Lydia softly, positioning herself in front of Stiles, eyes shifting blue.

Jackson stood at Stiles’ left. “We call the fifth element.” He chanted as his eyes shifted pure green.

Scott stood on Stiles’ only side. “We call the fifth element.” He said, eyes going Alpha red in an instant.

Then purple sparks flew from Stiles’ hands, and he pointed them to Heather. “I call the Fifth Element to me, to undo the evil and destroy her chakra!” he chanted ominously and Heather was floating in the air in a tornado of air, earth, water and fire, and she was screaming in desperation.

Derek stared at it dumbfounded, and then she was deposited on the ground, looking exactly like before. Only, her scent had changed. There was no scent of magic on her anymore.

She stared at her hands in horror. “What have you done!” she called, almost crying in desperation.

Stiles levelled her with a look. “I avenged Theo.” He said in the end, and Heather screeched.

“No, I want my powers back! Give me back my powers! Stiles Stilinski…!” she shouted, and Stiles flinched.

Scott glared and then roared in her face, and she stopped talking, looking terrified at them.  That’s when the Sheriff appeared, giving a look to his son and the rest of them. He didn’t even seem surprised that Derek was shifted and grabbed a pair of handcuffs, looking down at Heather. “Miss Trainor, you will have to come with me. You just attempted murder to an entire family.” He said coolly. She whimpered, and the Sheriff turned to them. “I expect you to be at the Hale house?” he asked, and Lydia nodded.

Derek wasn’t even looking at them, having finally moved to where Stiles was standing. Jackson gave a low threatening growl, but didn’t do anything as the wolf approached his friend.

Stiles looked at him with tears in his eyes. “I avenged Theo. I did it…” he whispered, and Derek hugged him, holding him tight.

“You did good, Stiles.” He whispered back, and Stiles started crying.

Everyone was currently sitting outside the Hale house, where Cora was being held by her mother. Lydia, Scott, Stiles, Jackson and Allison were sat in front of the Alpha, looking out of place as they gazed awkwardly at one another.

The woman smiled at them. “You are not in trouble. I was just wondering, who is in your pack?” she asked.

Scott scratched the back of his neck. “I guess we are a pack.” He admitted, and Jackson rolled his eyes. “It’s, uhm, me, Stiles, Lydia, Jackson, Ally. And well, Liam. Just us.” He looked up at her guiltily. “But we don’t want to steal your land. We are just kind of protecting Beacon Hills, we know Beacon Hills is Hale Land. But like…” he shrugged, and looked pleadingly at Lydia.

She huffed. “What Scott is trying to say, we consider each other Pack, but none of us went and asked for the bite. What happened exactly, is that Heather, when we were in freshman year, lost control of a rogue werewolf she was experimenting on. That wolf bit Scott first, and me and Jackson. But because he had Heather’s dark magic in, no one of us came out of it a normal wolf.” She pointed at Stiles. “He was a spark because his mom was one, but even he didn’t know. Allison did inherit some of her mother’s powers as well, just not the spark. We didn’t know what was happening to each one of us. But we were drawn together by the Nematon.

Scott was the first one who almost went rogue, but somehow, Allison managed to save him without even knowing about him being a werewolf. Then I started predicting people’s deaths, and me, Stiles and Scott tracked down the werewolf that bit us and was now killing people: the rogue. I killed it, and it brought some sanity in my head. Jackson turned into a kanima, and a guy in my school, Matt, tried to use him against all the people he didn’t like.” She grimaced at that. “Gerard and Allison’s mother died in this, but Gerard totally deserved it. I saved Jackson. Allison went a little dark when her mother died and then she found out that Stiles was her brother, and her real mother was dead too, but Scott saved her. Then Heather came along, and then Theo, and she managed to use Theo’s death to turn Stiles into a demonic fox spirit. It was ugly, but together we stopped him again.

That’s when we finally all went to the Nematon, and Stiles cleaned the tree and brought it back to health- which is where the stories come from, of course. Every five hundred years, the five elements come together and they save the Nematon from impending doom. And they become the Guardians of Beacon Hills.” She explained, and whacked Jackson when he yawned.

Talia turned to Deaton. “Did you know?” she asked, frowning.

Deaton gave a smile. “I had my suspicion, but they never came to me for help. They told me they were both werewolves, but never that they were Beacon Hills guardians.” He explained, mildly.

Chris- who had come with the Sheriff to arrest the group of hunters and Heather- smirked. “I knew, of course, but it wasn’t my business to tell. So did John.” He turned to Peter. “And you too, didn’t you?” he asked, amused.

Peter batted his eyelashes at him, at which Malia looked vaguely disgusted and John moved closer to his husband. “I watched them, and I knew there was more than they let on. Plus, those pretty amethysts that they always have with them, were suspicious, since they help hiding the scent of magic and supernatural.” He said, and Stiles glared at him.

“They worked perfectly until you showed up.” He complained, and Allison snickered quietly next to him. Then she turned serious.

“I don’t want to be rude, but we are not looking for a Pack to settle down with. We are obviously ready to help, if worse comes to worse, but we are not vowed to save one Pack. We vowed to protect the entire of Beacon Hills, human or supernatural, until our ashes mix with the ground again. We are ready to die, serving our cause.” She pronounced, and they all smiled and nodded solemnly.

Talia looked disappointed, but nodded too. Malia glared. “So you always knew that we weren’t fully human?” she asked, and this time they gave her all wicked smiles.

Jackson zeroed in on Derek, Isaac and Boyd. “Oh yeah. I heard you all talking shit about me since that first day of school. And, Isaac, I could hear you heart beating fast every time you talked to me.” He teased, and Isaac glared at him.

Scott gave Derek a smirk. “Yeah, that was my favourite part. Dude, you had such a crush on Stiles.” He complained, and Stiles winked at Derek.

Lydia rolled her eyes. “We didn’t even need super powers to notice that.”

Allison laughed. “Exactly! The chemistry on the room was suffocating.”

Scott pointed at him. “What is that he asked us? If we were hunting?” he said, and they all dissolved into fits of giggles.

Jackson held his stomach, looking at Derek. “His face too!” He tried to make his voice deeper. “Or maybe you are hunting!” Now even the Hale Pack was laughing and Derek glared at them all.

Stiles chuckled, moving to sit next to him. He held up his hand, and Derek put his own on top. “See? I told you things were going to be all right.” They entwined hands. “Now, Derek Hale: will you finally go on a date with me?” he asked, eyes twinkling.

Derek didn’t respond, he just kissed Stiles on the lips, both of them ignoring Chris Argent, Sheriff Stilinski and Robert Hale’s pointed coughs.

Obviously Jackson ruined the moment. “You both reek of pining and loveeee!” he complained. Stiles flipped him off.

“Derek, you can’t park there!” complained Cora, and Derek rolled his eyes at his little sister.

“Chill, I’m obviously not going to park on Jackson’s spot.” He told her, rolling his eyes at her.

Boyd laughed from the back. “I wish you did one day. I wonder who would win in a fight between the two of you? You can fully shift, but he can shift between two animals.” He pondered, and Isaac gave a sigh from the back.

“Jackson would obviously win.” He sniffed, stepping out of the Camaro.

Derek gave him a look. “What an awful friend. Bros before hoes, remember?” he asked, and Jackson gave him the finger from where he was standing at the front door.

“You wish you could win, Hale! This hoe is better than anything you could possibly come up with.” He told him, and Derek snorted at him.

“Remember when I won against you at arm wrestling? Yeah, keep talking.” He told him, and Jackson growled at him, but he wasn’t really angry. It was all banter in the end.

The kanima fixed Isaac’s scarf, and then grabbed his hand, ignoring Cora and Derek’s catcalls. Boyd snickered. “I think he’s still annoyed that they didn’t win the couple thing.” He whispered to Derek.

Jackson turned around, glaring at him. “Boyd, I can still hear you!” he shouted, and Boyd laughed again.

“Cora Hale!” called Lydia, stalking towards them with a homicidal look on her face.

Cora sighed. “Here we go again.” She complained, and met the girl halfway there.

Lydia glared at her. “The football team reports still haven’t been signed, and Allison sent me to get them ready! I still don’t know how you think you guys are going to get a match if you can’t even finish off your paperwork. And another thing-” Cora looked at her in amusement, and then interrupted her with a kiss on the lips.

When she finally moved away Lydia stared at her unfocused for a few moments, and then sighed. “One day that won’t work with me.” She said, and Cora grinned, taking the papers from her hand.

“But today is not the day.” She told her, and they walked away, still bickering.

Malia, Kira and Erica rounded the corner, and Erica left the couple and grabbed Boyd and Derek’s arm, forcing them to follow her. Scott was standing at the door, looking inside with an amused expression on his face.

It was always difficult looking at Scott and thinking that he was the same True Alpha werewolf he saw just a few weeks prior. Allison and Stiles were inside the room with Liam, Brett, Hayden and Tracy, and many other students, all of them wearing roller skates and dressed as elves.

Derek frowned and looked at Scott. “Christmas is over.” He told him, and Scott grinned.

“Yeah, but apparently they have convinced your uncle to give them permission to dress like that for a week, since the claimed the winter formal was ruined with Cora’s disappearance.” He told them. “Peter said yes.” Of course Peter said yes.

Liam was a disaster on the skates, but Brett was helping him patiently. Apparently Brett was Liam’s mate, and Hayden had taken the thing with elegance. She had punched Liam and broke up with him, but she had stopped giving them shit for it. Apparently her and Tracy were on a man hunt. Everyone was scared.

Paige and Aiden twirled in front of them, and even the two of them dating had come to no one’s surprise except Derek’s.

Allison skated over to them, with a grin. “There are plenty of costumes for everyone, you should join us, before Harris decides to fill in a complaint.” She told them, and Scott followed her in obediently.

Erica pushed Boyd inside, and then Stiles was skating towards him with a pair of skates in his hands. Derek started shaking his head. “Nope.” He decided.

Stiles grinned. Derek glared. “No.” Stiles smirked. Derek refused. “Not happening.” Stiles winked. Derek gave a sigh of exasperation. “Give me the damn thing.” He said, and the brunette giggled.

And as Stiles helped him skate with him- “Derek that was awful” “Shut up”- Derek couldn’t help but think that nothing really changed in the end.

Lydia was still terrifying, only now she had a girlfriend who was just as terrifying. Jackson was still a douchebag with traits of kindness that he tried to hide. Scott and Allison were still in love. And Stiles was still a little shit, and Derek was still, apparently, a grumpy sourwolf.

Stiles laughed, and kissed him on the lips. “You are so bad at this” he giggled, helping him skate around the school.

A grumpy sourwolf with a boyfriend, though.