Author's Note: This was supposed to be so much more light hearted. I'm so sorry, boo. Here's your Valentines present! I love you :D
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
"Where are you going?"
Stiles screamed. The little old lady three houses down stood up from her rocker and leant against the railing of her porch at the noise. The yappy rat dog across the street went nuts. Stiles' phone slipped from his flailing hand and hit the driveway with a crack. Erica rolled her eyes from her perch atop his Jeep and waited for him to calm down.
"What is wrong with you," Stiles gasped, chest heaving. Erica cracked her grin at the human boy, flicking her hair over her shoulder and wiggling around. "Get off my car, oh my god, Erica no," Stiles groaned, his wild flailing slowing slightly. He did a weird thing where he emphasized every couple of words in a sentence just after he got spooked, a quirk he had always had, from what Erica could tell. She liked listening to his voice crack and strain around the words he emphasized, her eyes tracing his hands as they twitched like they wanted to jab along. It was one of the things that had first brought her attention to Stiles', back in middle school just before her crush started. Stiles jumped up, grabbing at her ankle to drag her off the roof of his Jeep, but she tucked her legs to her chest and swatted his hand away with a flick of her nails.
"Oh, come on," she teased, grinning at him from around her knees, careful not to smudge her plum lipstick on her skin. She was wearing a pair of torn up jean shorts and a tie-dye tank top, with a pair of battered black cowboy boots on her feet. It was nearly sixty degrees outside, but she hadn't been cold since she'd taken the Bite. Pretending to be human was Scott's job, not hers; she was the big bad predator in town and she didn't give two shits who knew. Derek was forgive making exaspterated grunting noises at her, trying again and again to brow beat her into playing along with the human act, but it wasn't like she was pushing people through walls or stalking them in high school or anything major. (Derek usually let those conversations end there and went off to sulk after that, which sited Erica nicely.)
"Are you sneaking out to meet a secret girlfriend," she asked, batting her eyelashes at him coyly, "You can tell me, I can so keep a secret."
Stiles blew out an exasperated breath from between his teeth, eyes rolling to look at the sky above his head. "Like I would keep any girlfriend I had a secret for more than five seconds," he muttered, crossing his arms across his chest. "If you must know-"
"Oh, I must."
"If you must know," Stiles repeated, as if he was trying to block out the interruption through sheer will power alone, "I'm going to the comic book shop downtown."
Erica's face crumbled into distaste. For a split second Stiles reeked of confusion, his heart starting to pound a little louder in her ears. Erica knew he was confusion because they'd talked comic books before and he knew she loved them, just as much as he did. But then she hopped down from her perch on the roof of his precious Jeep and grabbed his arm, tugging him toward the driver's side impatiently.
"That place is wretched," she griped, scowling fiercely as she wrenched open his Jeep's door and made to shove him in. He wiggled out of her hold and hoisted himself in his Jeep, pointedly trying to shut the driver's door in her face. Erica rolled her eyes, unfazed completely, and hopped over the hood to the passenger's side door, which she then pulled open and shut behind like she had been personally invited along to his comic book run. She hadn't been, but Stiles' heartbeat started to slow in her ears, his scent returning relaxed and happy, strong enough she could almost taste it in the back of her throat.
"No it isn't," Stiles said. He didn't start the car, staring at her intently. "I like it there," he added, when she continued to look at him like he was utterly and absolutely nuts.
"Every time I've gone in there they've asked me if I'm sure I'm in the right place," Erica said shortly. Stiles' face crumbled into disgust to match her earlier emotion, annoyance flashing through his scent like a strike of lightning, ozone rough and burnt.
"Ick," he said childishly, twisting to look at her properly. "Okay, then where do you go to get your comics?"
Erica knew Stiles' had marked this day on his calendar as a supernaturally free day. His dad was at work, Scott had strict instructions to find other friends, and Derek had been threatened (admittedly not very well) to keep his pack far, far away from casa de Stilinski. Erica hadn't honestly remembered tht until she'd seen Stiles leave his house and by that point she had been too set on the idea of spooking him to give ground, but the fact that it didn't seem occur to Stiles that he should remind her of his furry-free plans made Erica pause. She had hopped in his car like she belonged there and he had gone along with it, not a hint of hesitation in him. Erica hadn't been as sure as she seemed that she would be accepted along on his errand and after a breathless moment she squealed when he dropped his original plans, wiggling back into the passenger seat in excitement.
"Jump up on the highway, going south, Batman," she said, grinning from ear to ear. She produced an old battered mp3 player from her back pocket and reached for his radio with eagerly. He swatted at her as he started the car, but her shiny purple painted nails turned into claws and mimed scratching the back of his hand, so he drew back sharply.
"Oi, get your grimy paws off radio," Stiles grumbled, but as usual he wasn't listened to.
"Where's your audio jack?"
"Don't have one."
"You don't have one," Erica repeated. She was utterly horrified. "How do you listen to your iPod on the road? You… You've only got a tape deck."
Stiles smirked a little bit. He leaned over as the engine turned over, clicking open a compartment between them and pulling out a cassette tape with a cord hanging out of it. Erica made a little no way noise when she realized what it was, to which Stiles just gave her a snort and a shit-eating grin.
"No Nikki Minaj," he said as he popped it in. Erica simply smiled at him, leaning over to press her lips against his cheek with an over-exaggerated smacking sound, and snatched the audio cord from his hand. She hooked it up to her mp3 player and started to fiddle with it, propping her feet up on his dashboard as she did so. Isaac had tried the same thing once, propping his feet up on the dashboard of the Jeep as he rode passenger, and as he told the story he was lucky to leave the car with his legs intact. But Stiles didn't say anything else, twisting to check behind them as he backed out of the driveway and turned to car to head to the highway exit that lead south without any questions or hesitation. He didn't even wipe away the kiss mark branded in plum lipstick on his cheekbone, leaving it there for the world to see. Erica felt a great deal of warmth pool in her chest, different from the barbed breathless feeling that she'd harbored for years on him.
Erica had never had much in the way of friends and she'd been an only child in a strained household for all her life, but somewhere along the way Stiles had become one of her greatest friends and something like a brother to her, just a little bit. He was someone she could geek out with all she wanted, who she could call up and demand he get on the XBOX right then because she had the new Dead Space and co-op mode was so much better than single player. She honestly felt a little bad for all the people in the world without a friend like Stiles, who would change their entire day's plan just because the local comic book shop was run by dicks, who didn't say anything but no Nikki Minaj when she all but stole his stereo system. Erica felt her throat go tight as a kind of lazy warmth caused a reaction like liquid sunlight to drag through her bones. She clicked on a playlist she knew Stiles would appreciate and settled back to enjoy the car ride.
What Erica couldn't know, because for all her werewolf powers she wasn't a mind reader, is that Stiles hadn't forgotten his plans to spend the day alone with the latest comics in all his favorite series. But he'd come outside and found Erica on the roof of his Jeep, all long blonde hair and sun kissed gorgeous legs, and at the sight of her smile he hadn't been able to say no even if he had wanted to. And then she kissed his cheek, marking him in a way she probably didn't even realize as hers. What Erica couldn't possibly know was that Stiles had spent weeks wondering if he would ever be considered a part of their pack and in that single act alone she told him everything he needed to know about that unasked question.
Stiles wore the lipstick print on his cheek for the rest of the day and let Erica bully him into buying three new series of comics along with the updates for all his old series. They went home to his empty house and ate Chinese takeout, sprawled across his bedroom floor surrounded by smooth, colorfully inked panels. Erica fell asleep spread atop his comforter, her own lipstick smudging her arm where she was using it as a pillow. Stiles listened to her breathe as he stared at the comics spread across the floor and made plans and backup plans so that he could do everything in his power to make sure no one would ever take this warmth in his chest from him and leave him alone again.