Heartless
Stiles listened to music alone in his room. It hummed quietly enough that he could focus in on his thoughts. Occasionally he'd feel the need to lay down and drown in his thoughts.
The insanity of his world struck him sometimes. His werewolf best friend and him constantly played the parts of heroes saving peoples' lives who didn't even know they were in danger. His phone chirped with a text from Derek. We need to talk. He picked up his keys and jacket and made his way to Derek's apartment. Since his friend rarely texted anyone he figured it was something important. Derek opened the door before Stiles even knocked. He was dressed in jeans and a tight T-shirt. His stern expression didn't change when he saw Stiles, he simply gestured for him to come in. They sat down and Derek handed Stiles an old brown leather-bound book.
"It's Peter's journal." Derek explained.
"There's nothing in here." Stiles flipped through the blank pages.
"Or it's hidden." Derek got up and stood by the window. "I need to know Peter's true intentions, and there may be something that can do the trick, but I need your help."
"Why the sudden concern about Peter?"
"We're always concerned about Peter. It's in his nature to be greedy. I'm worried as soon as anyone of us becomes an inconvenience to him he'll… He'll get us out of the way."
"What did you have in mind? This thing that can help us?"
"It's an earpiece. It accesses memories, thoughts- I'm not exactly sure. With it I believe we can find out Peter's true intentions."
"Well, I'm in. Where is it?"
"An old man's basement."
"That sounds simple enough."
"Yeah he's… a ninja."
Stiles groaned. He also worried about Peter's intentions and knew it would put everyone's minds at ease if they found out Peter a heart. It was also very hard to believe that this once killer had a heart.
"He's said things recently," Derek went on, "Awful things. And I'm not sure if he's serious or if it's his dark sense of humor. I'd just like to be sure. Because soon…" Derek paused, turning around to look at Stiles, "Because Peter is going to ask Malia to move in with him."
"What?" Stiles was dumbfounded. "They've hardly spoken to each other."
"Well, incase she says yes, we should know if it's safe for her."
"Whether or not how safe it is… Oh god that'd just be awkward!"
"Let's go." He said, ignoring the comment.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm all about breaking the rules, but I'm not a huge fan of getting into trouble. This kinda seems like one of those latter situations. This goes beyond ninja, this guy looks like he has a bomb shelter full of guns." Stiles tried to stop looking at the cameras perched outside the front door, as well as above windows. He fiddled with the latch on the car door. Stiles started to speak again but Derek shushed him, raising a hand as a gesture to listen. Two men had gotten out of a car. Their black clothes blended with the dark night.
"Let's go." Derek whispered. They stealthily got out of the car and crept up on the two men, knocking them out before they had moved in close enough to be seen by the cameras.
"I have a bad feeling about this. And that's probably because we're sneaking into a ninja's house. A paranoid ninja's house." Stiles whispered, an edge to his voice. Derek glared at him in response. They made their way to a window on the side of the house. Derek broke the glass by punching it in.
"You know, I think you got this. It might be best if I wait out-." Derek began lifting Stiles towards him in the house through the window and put a hand over the younger boy's mouth in case he started talking again. He took it off when Stiles had settled down a bit.
"Oh god." He muttered, his heart racing.
Derek motioned to a door in the back of the house. They crept downstairs without interruption, their only source of light was a flashlight. The basement was only one room, and covered in dust, causing Stiles to sniffle unpleasantly. Boxes filled the space. Some wooden and recently dusted, others decaying and abandoned.
"Quite the collection he has." Derek shined his flashlight over a wooden box that looked like it had been recently polished. He opened it up and handed it to Stiles after seeing it was what they'd come for. They rushed upstairs as soon as they could, only to be greeted by an old blind man around the corner.
"It's always something isn't it?" The man said casually, rubbing his fingers against his temples as he leaned against his cane. "Here's the thing. I'm very sentimental, not too fond of parting with my things."
Derek's fingernails turned to claws, hair sprung out of over his face, and his eyes turned to that cold icy blue. Stiles's heart picked up, wondering if Derek would strike this an old blind man. He didn't have to however, as the man struck him first with him first with the cane, which had spikes around the bottom. Derek caught it in his hands and threw it across the room.
"Let's get out of here." Stiles offered. Derek followed behind him, they ran out into their car while men chased them outside.
All eyes were on Stiles as he hesitated to pick up the hearing aid.
"I'm not so sure I want to be here for this." Derek started to leave but Lydia caught his wrist and glared at him. He put his arms up in a sign of surrender.
As soon as Stiles put it in his friends' voices flooded through him. He took it out and chucked it across the room, a soft plop landing in its wake.
His chest heaved. He hadn't been able to make out anything specifically, only heard the cacophony of everyone talking over each other, but when he looked around everyone was staring at him silently and expectantly.
"Could you all shut up maybe a little bit?"
"We weren't saying anything." They looked at each other.
"Maybe we could just start with one person?" He offered.
"I'm out." Derek got up and left first, with Allison and Lydia following him. Scott remained behind, alone with Stiles.
Scott picked the hearing aid up off the floor and handed it to Stiles.
"What do you hear?" Scott questioned once Stiles had finally put it back in, a look of concentration on his face.
"I hear… your heartbeat thrumming in your chest when you hold Allison's hand."
"Okay, that's weird. Not mention cheesy. Really, tone it down a bit Stiles."
"It's like I'm only hearing it but I'm also experiencing it." Stiles sat down. "There's water. You're in a hottub. I can hear the jets spurring out bubbles. You're laughing. We're laughing, it's like I'm there with you. The neighbors are playing music and the bass is shaking the ground. The speakers are giving off a shaky sound like they're on the verge of breaking. Now we're somewhere else. By a bonfire. The fire is crackling. It's loud. Someone is singing. People are unwrapping food. I think it's chocolate for s'mores. There are trucks in the distance."
Derek opened the door to his apartment, poking his head in to look at Stiles, too far away for Stiles to read his emotions. Stiles continued poking around in Scott's mind. Nothing surprised him as he'd already known most everything that was going around in there.
"Well it works," Stiles confirmed, "But I do not want to use this on Peter."
Stiles waited nervously on Derek's leather couch. His hands were shaking. Derek had made up an excuse in order to get Peter to come over. Stiles wasn't sure what is was, but Derek was talking to Peter across the room with the best mask of enthusiasm he could muster. Stiles wore a beanie that covered his ears along with the hearing aid. He tried to access Peter's thoughts but he was too far away to make out anything other than a hint of general annoyance. Their conversation stopped and Peter let out an exasperated sigh, walking over to Stiles.
"So what is this idea of your Stiles?" Peter asked condescendingly.
"Uh…" He looked at Derek. They probably should've spent more time planning this. Derek piped in, rambling on so that Stiles could enter Peter's mind while still keeping his uncle in the conversation, something about the structure of packs while stroking the other man's ego in an attempt to keep him engaged.
Stiles keyed into Peter's mind, heart, memories, and whatever he could reach. It struck him first as emotionless. He realized Peter blocked himself off from his own emotions, and for good reason. Stiles always knew Peter must keep a darkness within him. He wondered if that darkness that drove him to kill all those people as a crazed alpha ever truly left him. Stiles closed his eye, trying to push away the thought of how ridiculous he must look.
"Why would Stiles think of this?: He heard Peter say completely indifferently.
After he past the stony barrier Peter put up for himself, Stiles felt a wave of loneliness, strong enough to make Stiles feel bad for the guy. That diminished when he sensed the pride and fury that was built up inside him. Suddenly Stiles was taken to another place, a memory after Derek brought up Malia. Peter drove through Mexico with Malia beside him in the passenger's seat. He turned the music down and tried talking to her. It was awkward to say the least. He sensed the regret Peter felt that he hadn't known Malia was his daughter before. He wondered if it would've stopped the man from becoming crazy and killing all those people.
Derek and Malia were Peter's only family but he didn't truly belong with either one of them. He was only an alpha to a weak pack, disgruntled and uncoordinated. He wasn't their true leader. Now he was a lone wolf, close in proximity to Scott's pack but not with them.
"You asleep?" Peter snapped his fingers in front of Stiles's face, bringing him back to the loft.
"Yeah I'm here." It felt like he was waking up.
"Well buddies." Peter said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "It has been a wonderfully dull time with you." He left, shutting the door behind him.
"Guess he wasn't in a talkative mood." Stiles sighed.
"He clearly knew we were hiding something."
"Well I didn't have time to find much out about him. Peter is a… complex person. But he's not the worst ever. He wouldn't hurt Malia." Stiles hoped his words held the truth he made them sound to have. Derek nodded, content with his response. While the man may have been a lunatic, he was not heartless after all.