The Limerick Verse
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I. Affinity
When Stiles meets Isaac in the second grade, the boy is wearing a red, tattered Marvel shirt, while he has on his own black DC hoodie. (The two of them spend the whole day arguing over which one's better, and if Iron Man truly compares to Batman in terms of heroism; Isaac and Iron Man win, and it's totally not because the first letter of their names start with an I).
II. Anathema
The first time Isaac shows up to school with a bruised cheek, Stiles assumes he fell or had finally gotten into a fight with Jackson (who teases the two of them mercilessly with a silent Danny at his side). However, when Stiles tries to pry details out of his friend, Isaac gives him a small, hopeless smile and asks him what kind of sandwich he has for lunch that day and Stiles must've taken a hint (or is just a little too easily distracted) and answers with a chirpy "peanut butter and banana on wheat, what about you?"
III. Austere
"What happened to Isaac Lahey?" Scott questions Stiles one day during their first year of middle school, watching Isaac from across the cafeteria with pity in his dark eyes. Stiles shakes his head and ignores the churning of his stomach, attempting to rid the memory of a seven year old Isaac pushing Stiles out of his house, slamming the large door in his stunned face; "No idea, man."
IV. Battology
"I can help, Isaac. My dad and I...we can help," Stiles says to Isaac one day during Lacrosse practice, before all of the supernatural nonsense found them. His voice is soft and a little edgy because he hasn't spoken to Isaac in so many years and the last time he had, Isaac was telling him to keep what he saw that day to himself. He remembers young Isaac's stricken face, remembers the desperation in his voice loud and clear, "if you tell anybody, I'll disappear, Stiles. And I don't want to leave. I don't want to leave."
V. Coalesce
Stiles never stopped noticing Isaac, had never stopped wishing they were still friends. He wants to sit next to him in class and discuss random crap like they used to and invite Isaac over to play video games or study or write plots for comics of their own and draw little figurines next to the dialogue (Isaac in blue pen, Stiles in red) in the spare notebook Stiles stole from his dad when they were six. (The Sheriff would've given it to them if they'd have just asked, but they needed to do something "spontaneous" they said, so he left them alone).
He'd also really like to cuddle up next to Isaac during a movie and argue over this and that, act like the past 8 years never happened, like they were still Stiles & Isaac, partners in crime.
VI. Deflagrate
When Stiles is dragged by the hunter disguised as a deputy into the room where Isaac was being held, Stiles is relieved when Isaac shoves himself into the guy, pushing Stiles out of his too-tight grip, successfully knocking him out as he slammed against the concrete wall. His relief, however, returns to him in a breath of air because after the hunter's out of the way, wolfed-out Isaac turns to him with the same, wild look on his face and Stiles feels his heart leap into his throat, feels a fire licking it's way through his chest, burning slow in the pit of his stomach. He wants to grab Isaac, tell him to snap the fuck out of it, but he can't, and he cowers against the wall behind him instead. Stiles feels like he might puke as Isaac steps towards him, but then Derek runs into the room and he snarls, making Isaac curl up into himself, into submission.
Stiles pushes down the sudden anger at Derek—for making Isaac looks so fucking afraid—and thanks him, asks him how he did that. When Derek answers, Stiles feels the bile return and he locks gazes with Isaac, who's still trembling before Derek. Stiles doesn't like it, but there's nothing he can do.
Not anymore.
VII. Ecru
During a meeting between Derek's pack, Scott's pack, and the Argents, Isaac finds Stiles sitting on the front porch of the crumbling Hale house, and he takes a seat next to him, murmurs really quietly that he's sorry.
Stiles doesn't know what to say because he's not entirely sure where that 'sorry' is directed towards, so he shrugs his shoulders a little anyways and puts up an indifferent front, trying not to look into Isaac's crystallized eyes, trying not to see his own, questionable browns in the reflection of Isaac's gaze.
VIII. Faitour
"I need your help," Stiles doesn't like the shakiness of Isaac's voice as the werewolf approaches him in the parking lot behind the police station, or the way his hands are pressing into his right side unstably, or the way there's black ooze seeping through his shirt, through the spaces between his fingers. "Derek's gone, 's out looking for Erica. I need your help, please."
IX. Grace
Stiles seems to have forgotten that he and Isaac are right next to the police station, or the fact that it's still daylight, because when he sees the black goo spewing out of Isaac, he rushes to the boy and drags him towards his jeep with a bundle strength he didn't know he possessed.
He tells Isaac to take off his shirt with a slightly shaky voice of his own and grabs a small box from beneath the driver's seat of his jeep, tearing it open with a speed that makes Isaac chuckle halfheartedly. He doesn't last too long, ends up in a ragged coughing fit, and Stiles resists an eye-roll, showing Isaac the various bottles of wolfsbane the box contains. When Isaac identifies the type with distaste in his rough, "s'that one," Stiles gets the Bic lighter out of the jeep's glove compartment and hands Isaac the items, watching with a punch of emotion as Isaac lights the wolfsbane up and digs it into the bullet hole in his side, the tips of his fingers disappearing into his abdomen.
Stiles is a little disgusted, a little fearful, but he can't seem to look away, and if Isaac smells Stiles' flickering emotions, he doesn't say anything. Only breathes out a light "thank you, Stiles" when the wound starts to heal, wiping the black goo on his jeans. Stiles offers Isaac a ride back to Derek's place, and Isaac's hesitant, but he agrees, thanking Stiles again as he climbs into the passenger seat of the jeep, ignoring the slight tremor in Stiles' heartbeat, in his own, too.
X. Halcyon
After the incident behind the police station, Isaac starts to become apart of Stiles' daily life once again. He thanks Stiles' all the time, in little ways that do not include the actual words because Stiles' told him after the fifth thank you that it needed to stop, thathe was just doing what was right—saving a life of someone worth saving. And even if they still are a bit too distant to just fall into place like they once had been, they're still communicating without the awkwardness of it all, still understanding each other in a way that kind of freaks the both of them out. (Not that they'd ever admit, of course).
Stiles is just glad he's getting Isaac back, and he knows it'll take awhile, but they'll be what they once were eight years prior, before Isaac's dad forced his kid to grow up faster than he needed to, because they're still Stiles & Isaac, partners in crime, and they're stuck in the intervals of those classic black and white films they like to watch every Tuesday/Thursday night, and their scents are morphing together, becoming an entirely different but familiar one, and Isaac loves it.
And Stiles thinks if he had a werewolf's sense of smell, he'd love it, too.
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