Naked

by Wesz

Part 1 of "Parenting Skills Tested" series - AU to 5x01 Scott and Stiles search for the monstrous dog-boy, also known as their newest beta Liam. Or, the one where Scott and Stiles have to find their naked puppy, who's terrorizing the neighbourhood.

Loud cheers and thuds sound throughout the McCall household; a neighbour walking their dog looks up at the house, pondering for a second if she should call the police, especially when her little dog shrinks in on itself when a loud bang sounds through the night. The woman holds still for a moment, looking up at the opened window, where faint TV light is shimmering occasionally.

"Stiles! You can't just do that!"

"Stop whining, you're being a sore loser."

"Stiles!"

Suddenly something is thrown from the window. It surges through the night sky. The dog barks fiercely and the woman takes a hurried step back when the object falls into the grass in front of her, right next to her feet. She looks down, puzzled, before identifying the foreign object as a TV remote.

"Could you throw it back, please?"

Stiles' head is poked through the window, an awkward look showing upon his face, because even though it doesn't sound like it he knows it's a ridiculous question. His face is illuminated by the faint silver light of the full moon.

The woman looks down at the remote before she stares back up at the window again. Quietly, she picks it up, walking across Scott's front yard and closer to the window. She doesn't speak while she throws it upwards, face still frozen with a mix of clear shock and astonishment. Stiles catches the device with two hands, almost falling out of the window himself.

"Thanks!" he shouts, before pulling his upper body back into Scott's room. Triumph etched on his expression, he holds the remote up.

"Man, that woman is going to go home tonight, wake up her husband and be like: 'You're never gonna guess what happened to me just now…'," Scott chuckles, his expression shifting into a more serious one. He wrinkles his nose. "I feel bad for her."

"It's kinda your fault, though," Stiles comments.

"You were cheating!"

"Well, you shouldn't have clawed at me."

"How am I supposed to know you're going to throw out my remote?"

"You know I have great reflexes," Stiles shrugs.

Scott gives him a look. "Yeah, because of your severe anxiety."

"Hey!"

"Okay, sorry. I shouldn't have said that," Scott apologizes. "I was just joking around." He bumps Stiles' shoulder with his.

Suddenly, Stiles' pocket starts ringing. With the room around them so dark, Scott scoots closer to Stiles, pressing his ear to the other end of the phone after Stiles picks up, expecting to hear something along the lines of: 'Seven days'.

"Stiles?"

The boys exchange a look.

"Dad? Why are you calling from a private number?"

"I'm calling from the station," Stiles' dad answers. "Are you with Scott by any chance?"

"Yeah, why?" Stiles wants to know, heart thumping in his chest.

"Good, good, that's good."

"What's wrong, dad?" Stiles asks. Scott can hear both of their pulses rising. It's never a good sign when the Sheriff calls you in the middle of the night.

"Well, we've been receiving a lot of calls over the past few hours about a monstrous looking dog-boy…" his dad explains, his tone sounding somewhat sarcastic. "…And I couldn't help but notice it's a full moon."

Stiles facepalms himself at the exact same moment as when Scott mutters, "Liam."

"Right. Sorry. Sorry, dad, we're on it."

"I just think that you guys should really become more responsible about this whole th-"

Stiles ends the call. Scott looks at him with wide eyes; one of those 'dude, you're dead'-looks.

"I'm really not in the mood for another lecture," Stiles brushes it off.

"He's gonna kill you."

"I know."

In the next moment they run downstairs, leaving their jackets on the coat-rack, before Scott slams the front door shut. "Alright, so where did your dad say the calls had come from?"

Stiles frowns at him. "Weren't you listening in? He didn't."

"Then how are we supposed to find him?!" Scott exclaims in disbelief, because, honestly, he thought Stiles was the clever one of the pack.

Stiles presses his lips together. Scott can smell his annoyance. It stays quiet for a moment, but then Scott perks up.

"Oh! Right! Super senses!"

"There it is," Stiles sighs, opening the door to his jeep. Scott climbs into the passenger seat with a faint blush on his cheeks.

The engine roars to life, Stiles taking off into the darkness. They drive in the direction of Lydia's lake house, heading towards the edge of the woods near Beacon High.

"Do you get anything?" Stiles asks after a while.

Scott has his head poked out of the window, sniffing at the air. Stiles watches him through his side mirror. "If only you also had your tongue out…" he mumbles, picturing what could have been the start of his YouTube fame if only that were so.

"Not yet. I could try and roar, maybe he will respond?"

"Sure, Scott, just start roaring on the night of the full moon in a town that is also known as a literal beacon for supernatural creatures, that'll sure draw the crazies out."

Scott moves back into his seat. "Do you have to be so sarcastic all the time?"

Stiles opens his mouth to say something, but then sighs, loosening his grip on the steering wheel before tightening it again. "Never mind."

Scott turns his head up front again, closing his eyes. He starts to focus on his own heartbeat, which is beating steadily. It only jumps sometimes, probably reflecting his worry concerning his beta. The sounds around him fade into the background, even the noise the jeep's making. The world quietens; deepens. It's almost as if Scott's turning the volume knob of a radio to mute. Up above, he can feel the full moon, its light like a beam of power raining down on the Earth, seeping into Scott's pores and fuelling the wolf inside of him. It's roaring, trying to break out of its cage,eyes flashing red, fierce and dangerous. Scott tightens the restraints, sinking the cage further down into his being when he thinks of his anchor.

He concentrates on the moon again, which now seems to be casting thin, silvery threads across the town. Scott searches for them mentally, exploring them with his senses. Some appear familiar to him; one orange and one blue – Kira and Malia. There's a green one he doesn't recognize, and somewhere in the distance there's a faint yet brighter one that's Derek's. White's Lydia, he knows, but he can't seem to make out any other colour. He just needs to find the red one…

"To the right!" Scott suddenly exclaims.

"Son of a-" Stiles curses. "You scared the hell out of me!" He turns right at the next intersection.

"We're getting closer," Scott comments.

Stiles nods, looking around himself. He frowns, recognizing some of the houses. A look up at one of the street signs makes his eyes widen. "Uh-oh."

"What?"

"We're in the nice neighbourhood."

"What do you mean?"

"As in, where the rich people live?" Stiles reminds him.

Scott's face falls. "That's where Liam lives… Wait, you don't actually think he would go home, right?"

"I don't know, but let's hope not, or else his parents are going to have the surprise of their lives."

Stiles follows the road for a couple more blocks, glancing at Scott from the corners of his eyes.

"He's nearby, I can feel it," Scott answers his unasked question. "Really nearby…"

Stiles stares into the night.

"Stop the car. I think we can walk from here."

Stiles kills the engine. Both boys step outside the car, doors slamming shut. Stiles walks around, following Scott who has moved onto one of the properties.

"Are you kidding? He's in someone's garden?!"

Scott turns around and throws him a blunt look.

Stiles glares at him before he caves. "Okay, fine. But I'm telling you this, during the next full moon we're grounding his ass and chaining him up against some big old tree or something."

Scott sighs softly, knowing Stiles's right. "I hear you…" he whispers.

The house they're walking up to looks huge. It's made of white brick and the roofing has a nice dark brown colour. The porch has patterns on the pillars and the whole building just screams wealth. Even with the kitsch-y pink flamingo near the sidewalk.

There's a high fence on the side of the house, which separates the private garden from the outer world. Scott reaches for the handle, slowly pushing it down. There's nothing but silence around them, not even an owl hooting or a dog barking; the moon their only source of light. Scott pushes the door open ever so slightly. Stiles nervously taps him on the back and when Scott turns to look at him, he's showing a thumbs up. Scott rolls his eyes, pushing the door a little more. It makes a cracking noise, which makes Scott feel like he's trying to walk safely through a minefield.

When the opening is big enough for them to squeeze through, they step into the garden. Needless to say it looks fancy, with a small pond, and what seems like hundreds of flowerbeds, all surrounded by soft looking grass. There's even a marble statue in the middle of some Greek goddess. Stiles feels uncomfortable even being there.

"He's somewhere around here…" Scott whispers, barely audible. He looks around the open space with narrowed eyes. He has to squint more deeply to peer through the bushes and plants, but then – for once, without Stiles' help – remembers he has alpha vision. He screws his eyes shut for a moment, before opening them back up again, his irises now glowing with a bright cherry like colour.

"Still freaks me out when you do that…" Stiles mutters behind him. "…Especially when we're walking in a stranger's garden in the middle of the night."

Scott suddenly holds still while scanning the place. He grabs Stiles by his arm, almost accidentally ripping his skin off as he does so. Stiles wants to shout, but Scott quickly covers his mouth with his hand. "There," he whispers into his hair, pointing towards one of the bushes.

With his alpha vision he sees a red glow that can be identified as one of an animal, crouched towards the ground.

"So what are we going to do? We can't just grab him and knock him out or something…" Stiles thinks for a moment. "…Can we?"

"Let's just grab him first," Scott decides, because that's probably already gonna be enough of a task.

"Right."

On their tiptoes they move through the grass. For a moment Stiles considers taking off their shoes, because he's sure they're already being too loud. They near the bush that Liam's supposedly behind. They can both hear a faint grumbling coming from behind it…almost like a soft snoring. Hope grows inside of Scott's chest, because Liam being asleep would be fucking great, but knowing their luck he'd be picking at a dead rabbit or something.

A quiet breeze makes the leaves on the bush tremble and both boys stick their arms out in front of each other's chests to stop each other from moving. They've stopped breathing; air feeling heavy in their lungs as they approach. Just a few more inches and they can see around the branches. A couple more steps and…

"Gotcha!" Scott jumps forwards, his arms flailing around his beta's neck, who's throwing his limbs about in a desperate attempt to break loose from his attacker. He even exclaims a loud whimper.

But then, in a mere second, a loud growl sounds behind him. He can hear skin slapping against skin.

"Scott!"

It only takes Scott a fraction of a second to throw himself around to see Stiles trying to fight off a wolfed out Liam. Stiles has pressed his hands against the boy's face, trying to keep him from biting his neck. His fangs glimmer sharply and when Scott looks back down he's staring into the terrified eyes of a dog. He flings himself off, rushing towards his best friend, who's screaming in panic.

"Get him off, get him off! Liam! Liam, get off!" Stiles yells, using all his strength to wrestle the young werewolf off of him. Scott reaches them in a final leap, grabbing Liam by his upper arms and swirling through the air around him. The alpha proves to be stronger and he rips Liam off Stiles, throwing him through the night, aimed straight towards the…

"Oh my God. Oh my God, no! No! Not the statue!"

It crumbles to pieces from the impact; larges stones falling on top of Liam's head. Then, the night falls silent again, the faint dust of rubble settling before them.

Scott rushes towards Liam, Stiles on his heels. When he reaches him he falls to his knees, quickly examining him.

"He's knocked out," he then diagnoses.

He looks back at Stiles, who suddenly has a clear expression of disgust on his face. Scott frowns, but Stiles only point to Liam. "Oh my God. Is he naked?!"

Scott's eyes widen, his cheeks heating up when he finally takes in Liam's full appearance…all of his appearance.

"Gross, man! He was on me! His thing was probably…" Stiles' upper body hunches forward, making barfing sounds. "That's disgusting."

"You don't have to be so dramatic about it…" Scott comments. "It's just a body…"

"Yeah, but it's Liam's body," Stiles points out. "I mean, is looking at him even legal? He's fifteen!"

Scott blinks, then shrugs it off. "Come on, we need to get him home."

"Home? To where? His home? What if his parents find out?!"

Suddenly, the garden lights up with a loud bang. The once scared dog now starts barking.

"Go, go, go!" Scott says, flinging one of Liam's arms over his shoulders. Stiles hurries to do the same. They drag Liam out of the garden, towards Stiles' jeep. They can hear a very angry man shouting behind them. Stiles opens the back door and Scott hauls Liam inside before they both quickly get into the car as well. Stiles silently prays to every God he can possibly think of to, for once, not let his jeep give up on him now, and luckily it doesn't. The front lights illuminate and Stiles hits the gas.

A couple of miles further down the road, Stiles stops again. He gets out of the car and walks around, revealing a blanket in the trunk. He throws it over Liam, who's still knocked out on the back seat. Scott helps pull the corners of the blanket out and makes sure it's covering all of Liam's body.

Twenty minutes later, they're at Scott's house. Another ten minutes later, they've managed to put a pair of sweatpants on Liam – a memory Stiles hopes he will soon forget – and pull him on Scott's bed.

"I'm gonna call my dad, tell him everything's fine," Stiles announces, voice low, so as to not wake Liam up.

"Sure," Scott replies.

He pulls the blanket out from under Liam and splays it across him. He presses against the sides of Liam's body; tucking him in nicely. When he's finished, Stiles comes back in.

"My dad says the calls stopped coming in half an hour ago. Apart from one angry man who says a couple of kids have ruined his five thousand dollar statue."

"Did you tell him we did it?" Scott wants to know.

Stiles frowns at him. "What? No! Of course not. What am I? An idiot without any respect for his freedom? God, Scott."

Scott shakes his head. Silence coats the air around them next minute or so, both boys staring down at the newest beta of the pack.

"You know, he looks kinda cute, like this," Stiles breaks the silence with a soft whisper.

"He does," Scott hums, nodding a little. "Not like someone who just disturbed an entire town."

Stiles agrees. "Or like someone who just nearly bit my head off."

"Derek said he was going to be a tough one."

"How do you mean?"

"Strong."

"Well, from experience I can tell you, Derek's right," Stiles mumbles.

Scott snickers a little.

Suddenly, the sleeping boy in front of them starts to move. He groans softly, rubbing his eyes while he does so. One of them opens slightly. "Hey…" he breathes. "What are you guys doing here?"

Scott and Stiles look at each other and smile. "You're at my place," Scott explains, tucking Liam back in.

"Why am I at your place?" Liam asks confusedly, still a bit drunk from the sleep.

Stiles ruffles his hair. "We'll talk about it in the morning."

They both leave the bedroom, Scott flicking off the light before he shuts the door. "You're going to kill him, aren't you?"

"Oh, he's dead."