Scott and Stiles grew up together in the south of England, in a little village nestled in the heart of Kent. The boys were thick as thieves from the off – Scott would listen when Stiles could do nothing but ramble incessantly, fidget continuously, so that the chatter in his head might dull a little, and Stiles was never without a spare inhaler for those moments when Scott simply couldn't breathe.
Scott's father was a bit useless, a bit drunk, a bit violent, and eventually left Scott and his mother, Melissa, when he was eight years old. Stiles, known as Rupert in those days, was a constant comfortable presence throughout all of the mess.
Melissa McCall was a long held friend of Stiles' mother, Sally Stilinski, whom fell seriously ill with a bout of pneumonia when the boys were nine. She never recovered entirely from the disease, and her weakened body was simply in no fit state to fight when cancer came calling two years down the line. The boys' roles reversed where Scott became the calming source through Stiles' ensuing anxiety troubles, and the following few months when whiskey was the only comfort for Detective Jonathan Stilinski before he came to the sober realisation that he was neglecting his boy, and determined never to touch a drop again.
Scott and Stiles spent up their youth trying to make as much mischief as humanly possible without getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar. That Stiles' father was a Senior Detective with the Kent Police, that Scott's mother was an Accident and Emergency Nurse at their local hospital, did little to dissuade them from their course of destruction. And if they ever did land themselves in hot water, they always had each other to nurse the wounds of their damaged pride. Life was ridiculously simple.
And then we bring them forward to eighteen years of age, and the boys take a camping trip across the pond to the Coachella Valley in California. Only days in to their summer long West Coast road trip, before University begins for them in the autumn, the boys become separated one warm night and Scott is attacked by something. When nothing comes of the bite, that heals rather more quickly than either of them would expect – particularly considering that they forwent proper medical treatment – when they find no other reports of mysterious animal attacks in the area, when they see no other sighting of the beastly thing, they conclude that it was only a mountain lion, ignoring all suggestions that it might possibly have been a wolf. After all, wolves haven't been spotted in California in over sixty years, so says Stiles' travel guide. The guide that Stiles throws away less than two weeks later, when Scott turns into some odd hybrid between man and wolf, and nearly eats him. Thankfully, Stiles is apparently better at climbing trees than a newly wolfed out Scott, and once the full moon dips back behind the mountains, when Stiles can walk off the night long cramps left from spending half a dozen hours up a tree, Stiles is otherwise unharmed and Scott is all human once again.
Following a four day long argument regarding the impossibility of fantastical beasts and mythical creatures, they eventually agree that Scott is now a werewolf.
By the end of the summer, when they are due to return to England, they've got Scott's more violent and animalistic tendencies down to a manageable level of what the fuck. However, it is obvious to the both of them that returning home is now a distant dream. They've changed, they're different now. Stiles knows that there is more to this world than he'd originally thought, and that simply cannot be ignored, and Scott has morphed into one hell of an athletic genius, and such skills need to be applied constructively.
They have a new purpose, in any event: finding the werewolf who turned Scott so they can ensure that this doesn't happen to another innocent fool.
Maybe they'll meet a few other monsters along the way.
Their parents receive letters in the post some days into September explaining that the boys are extending their trip, taking an entire year out before returning to school, and that they promise to keep in touch, and send all of their love.
No return address is provided.