"What happened to us?"
The question was innocent enough, but it made Stiles look up from the essay he was working on in the school library during lunch to see Isaac standing in front of his table with a furrowed brow. Stiles wet his lips and shook his head a little as he said, "I don't know what you mean."
"We used to be friends," Isaac reminded him. "What happened?"
Stiles could clearly remember a time before when he and Isaac were close. They would spend time at each others' houses, spend the night, keep each others' secrets. Then, around the time that Stiles' mother got sick, Stiles started pulling away from everyone, Isaac included. Stiles did not let anyone else in until Scott moved to town just before the Hale fire. Even then, they did not really get close until junior high when they had to work together on a project and found out just how much they had in common. Stiles had tried not to cry when he told Scott why his mother was not around.
After a few moments of quiet thought, Stiles wet his lips again and shrugged, trying his best to seem indifferent about everything when really it just hurt that he had let himself push Isaac away. Maybe if he had not, he could have helped Isaac leave his home earlier. "I don't know," Stiles finally said, staying as calm as possible.
If Isaac caught the sound of that lie, the curly-haired beta did not say. Instead, he pulled one of the chairs back and sat down. "Can we fix it?"
"Why?" Stiles brow furrowed a little as he rested his arms on the table, making Isaac frown.
Stiles watched as Isaac fidgeted in his seat, as though he were uncomfortable. "I miss you."
Stiles inhaled sharply through his nose, stilling the fingers that had been drumming against the table top. "Yeah," he replied after moment, the word coming out mostly breath. "I've missed you, too."
Isaac smiled softly at that, making Stiles smile as well. It had been years since he had seen the blue-eyed teen smile like that. "Come over to the loft after school."
Stiles lifted his brow slightly at the request before he chuckled softly with a smile, moving to cross his arms over his essay. "Sure Derek won't mind?"
"He can deal." Isaac shrugged with a smirk that was more common than any smile. Stiles really missed his smiles.
"He's had a bad influence on you." Both teens laughed softly at that, but Stiles nodded as he ran a hand through his hair. He was not sure where this sudden want to try to fix things came from; but, he guessed it was as good a time as any. Senior year was half-way over, after all. "No more throwing the human around living rooms and we've got a deal."
Despite the teasing in Stiles' voice, Isaac winced a little, knowing exactly what Stiles was talking about. Isaac had not exactly been the nicest person to Stiles since becoming a werewolf. A part of Stiles felt that he deserved it, though. After all, he was the one who pushed Isaac away in the first place. "I'm sorry," Isaac said softly without looking at Stiles. He suddenly found the top of the table very interesting. Stiles watched as the other teen idly traced his finger over a pattern in the grain.
Stiles shook his head a little and laughed softly with a small smile. "No, dude; don't apologize to me. You're not the one who should be sorry."
"I could have killed you."
"You didn't, though." Stiles lifted his shoulders a little as Isaac looked up at him, and he smiled at the curly-haired teen. "If I let a little violence intimidate me, I wouldn't be friends with Derek Hale, now would I?"
None of them were exactly sure how that one happened. Somewhere between sophomore and junior years, Stiles' fear of Derek had faded and throughout everything that happened with the alphas, they had formed a tentative friendship. Scott still did not exactly understand why Stiles was friends with Derek, the guy was still a jerk sometimes, after all; but, it was what it was. Isaac still seemed unsure, but Stiles just smiled and tapped the blue-eyed teen on the arm with his pen before saying, "S'whatever. We can get food on the way over and annoy Derek with us taking over his kitchen, yeah?"
Isaac seemed like he still wanted to argue against his previous actions, but Stiles, like usual, was insistent of pushing it aside and ignoring it. "Yeah, alright," Isaac replied after a moment, nodding a little. "Meet you out front after school?"
"Yeah, alright." Stiles nodded with a small smile, though a part of him could not figure out what he was doing.
The rest of the school day passed by too slow and too fast all at the same time. Stiles was not exactly sure how that was possible, but he did not even try to figure out. Soon enough, he found himself saying good-bye, who was going to go hang out with Allison as friends, they both insisted, and making his way out to the Jeep. Isaac was not there yet, but the curly-haired teen showed up only a few moments later. Stiles smiled when he saw Isaac and said, "C'mon, let's go."
"What're we getting?" Isaac questioned as he climbed up into the passenger seat next to Stiles.
The other teen smiled over at him while turning the car on before saying, "You'll see."
A stop at the grocery store and a short drive across town later found the two teens in the kitchen of Derek's loft. Isaac still had no idea what Stiles was planning on doing, though the two of them were complaining about coach as they unloaded all the groceries bought from the plastic bags. It was once they were all strewn out on the counter that Isaac perked up slightly in realization. "We're making cookies?" he said, a smile tugging on his lips.
"Tradition," replied Stiles with a nod and a smile of his own. He and Isaac used to make cookies with his mother most days after school, just a small batch for the day; but, they would always make some snickerdoodles (Isaac's favorite) and chocolate chip (Stiles' favorite).
"I can't believe you remember." Isaac chuckled a little as he and Stiles started to move around the kitchen to get the cookie sheets, bowls, and other utensils they would need.
Stiles flashed another grin at Isaac and lifted his shoulder in a shrug. "Of course I remember, dude. You were my best friend for years. Not exactly something that you forget."
When Derek showed up at the loft a couple hours later, Stiles and Isaac were sitting on the couch, each with a small plate of cookies and some milk. The leftover cookies were sitting on a covered plate in the kitchen. The two of them were talking about everything that had happened since Isaac had gotten bitten. They continued to avoid the subject of what had happened to their friendship in the first place. "Don't you have your own kitchen to do that in?" Derek said, grumbling slightly as he shrugged out of his leather jacket, which he put on the back of one of the chairs at the table.
"We left you some," Stiles said as he sat up a little straighter, flashing Derek a bright smile, which earned himself a faint smile from the alpha. "Chocolate chip or snickerdoodle." Stiles nodded once in a resolute manner. "We were just discussing that pack that may or may not be heading in this direction."
Derek's brow lifted a little in question, forgoing the cookies in the kitchen to steal one from Isaac as he sat down on the couch in-between them. Ignoring his beta's glare, Derek broke off a piece of the cookie as he said, "What about them?" It should have been unsettling how comfortable it was just sitting there with the two teens. He felt more relaxed than he had all day.
"What we should do if they do come here," Isaac replied as he settled down in his spot more, leaning against Derek slightly so that their shoulders were pressed together. "Stiles thinks Peter's full of shit and that we shouldn't believe they're a threat until they prove it."
Stiles nodded a few times as he finished a drink of his milk before he cleared his throat and said, "I mean, c'mon, zombie-boy is known for screwing us over. Why should this be different? What if we just piss them off and start a war by assuming he's right? I think we've had enough carnage lately. I mean, unless they wanna take Peter off our hands. I wouldn't stop them."
Isaac snickered a little, shifting his plate out of the way when Derek went to steal another cookie. "I don't think any of us would."
Derek simply shrugged as he stole a cookie from Stiles, ignoring his indigent "Hey!" in response. Stiles nudged Derek as he said, "Get your own, big guy. No sharing."
"I thought sharing was caring," Derek replied, his brow lifting with a faint smirk as he stated Stiles' own words from the week previous.
Stiles nodded a few times as he said, "Only when it involves you having pizza and me having none, dude. S'how it works."
"Don't call me 'dude'." Derek rolled his eyes and Stiles poked his tongue out in response.
They all felt oddly at ease that afternoon, despite the fact that Stiles knew in the back of his mind he should be highly uncomfortable around both of the other guys. They were both werewolves that could easily break him and had a fascination with shoving him around at times. Yet, he was very content to sit there talking and laughing (well, smirking in Derek's case) with the two of them well into the evening. They ended up ordering some pizza that Derek went to go get, leaving the teens alone in the loft once again. "Wonder where Cora is," Stiles said idly as he and Isaac worked on their homework at the table, their books strewn out on top of the various maps and schematics that had started to be collected on top of the furniture they were using.
"I think she's with Boyd," Isaac replied with a shrug, before letting out a slightly huffed breath as he ran a hand through his hair. "I don't get any of this."
"What is it?" Stiles sat up a little straighter in the chair, attempting to see what Isaac was working on.
"That worksheet from Ms. Blake. What is prose?" Isaac pulled a face as he read over the questions, most of which used terms that Isaac did not follow. He was not stupid by any means, Stiles would kick anyone who said otherwise; English was just not his strength. Stiles knew well that Isaac had one of the highest grades in their math and sciences classes.
Stiles smiled at the other teen, pushing aside his own homework before saying, "Here, I'll help you."
It was nice, Isaac decided; he liked spending time with Stiles again. There was a tension there that neither one of them wanted to talk about, lingering hurt from the time they had spent apart or disliking one another. They never really had disliked one another, though. It was more just unresolved tension from everything before. Then again, Isaac guessed they'd saved each others' lives enough that there were new bonds between them that would make fixing things that much easier. He could not help but worry, though, that by the next morning, Stiles would be ignoring him again.
Stiles had gotten up to move around the table, standing next to Isaac as he talked the other teen through what he needed to know to fill out the worksheet. During that time, Stiles began to idly toy with Isaac's hair. Isaac did not notice it at first, and even when he did, he found he did not mind so he did not say anything. After a few minutes, though, Stiles seemed to realize what he was doing and he suddenly stopped, but rested his hand on Isaac's shoulder with a squeeze. "I think you've got it now," Stiles said with a slightly awkward laugh and a nervous smile.
When Isaac smiled at him in response, however, Stiles relaxed again, squeezing Isaac's shoulder once more before his attention turned to the doorway when Derek came in with the pizzas. Stiles groaned in appreciation and said, "You are my new favorite, Derek."
"Hey!" Scott called as he came into the loft, followed by Boyd and Cora, both of whom had small smiles on their faces. "I thought I was your favorite."
"Yeah, well, Derek brought pizza," replied Stiles with a gesture of his hand while he walked over to the kitchen area to grab plates for everyone (paper ones because Derek owned very few kitchen utensils as it was). "Ergo, he's my favorite."
Derek rolled his eyes as he placed the pizzas on the counter before walking over to the chair he usually put his jacket on to do just that. "If I knew that was all it took to get you to be compliant, I would've had pizza when I first needed your help," Derek stated, a faintly amused smirk on his face.
"Would've saved you so much time and energy, dude." Stiles nodded resolutely, stealing himself a few slices of pizza before going over to the couch to claim his spot on it. Isaac and Derek soon joined him while Scott took a chair from the table. Boyd sat on the floor instead of grabbing a chair himself, and Cora sat on the bed in the corner of the room.
It was nice, Stiles decided as they all talked about the upcoming lacrosse game (well, Derek and Cora listened), eating their pizza and enjoying the calm. The only thing that was missing was Lydia, Allison, and Danny. Then it would be a perfect evening. Scratch that, Stiles thought after a moment when he glanced over at Isaac and saw that the teen was really smiling for the first time in ages. It was already a perfect night.
