Stiles started noticing there was something not quite right in May.

School had finally let out for the year, but he was still already pretty busy between taking a pre-calc class at BHCC and his part time job at the bookstore. Sure the supernatural had fallen to the way-side, a welcome relief after the kitsune fiasco and the incubus scare (which, luckily or unluckily turned out to be a "normal" serial killer), but that didn't change the fact that Stiles was still an 18-year-old with a life.

It all began on a Friday morning, he had sacked out pretty early the night before because he had been just so tired and could barely stand by the time he got back from work, almost falling asleep in his dinner a couple of times. He woke up to the sound of his alarm buzzing and groaned as he reached over to pick up, only to drop it to the floor as he saw the time.

10:10AM

He was an hour late to class.

"Shit!" Stiles cursed as he scrambled to get out of bed, "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" He untangled himself from his sheets with only a little bit of struggle to grab a pair of pants and a shirt off his floor, only to be hit with a wave of dizziness as he got up to pull the shirt over his head. "Oh...crap." He swallowed thickly and dropped back down onto the bed. The sudden waves of tiredness he could handle, but those dizzy spells - not so much.

It had been going on for the past two weeks, waking up still exhausted, getting dizzy if he moved too fast, and...well...painfully sensitive nipples. But he didn't talk about that part, because a man has to keep some semblance of dignity. And there was nothing more undignified than having to say that wearing a shirt was turning into a painful experience.

He couldn't help but remember his mom, when she first started getting sick. She had been tired all the time, got nauseated if she smelled something even slightly off, felt aches and pains almost everywhere...it made worry build in the pit of his stomach. Stiles didn't know if he could handle putting his dad through all of that again, even if it was just a scare.

Stiles flopped back onto his bed (and totally did not wince when he bounced a little too hard) and reached for his phone on his nightstand. After getting through the couple of texts from Lydia and Danny asking where he was, if he was coming to class, and if he was okay, he pounded out a quick message to Scott.

To: Beam Me Up Scotty!
Hey, meet up after work?

Why bother going to a doctor first when he had a werewolf best friend to sniff him out?


Scott always knew how to make him feel better, because when he showed up later that afternoon he came loaded down with pizza, chips, and some of the best ganja ever.

"I think I'm in love with you." Stiles said, taking the pizza boxes out of Scott's hands. It smelled amazing, even with the grease overpowering the rest of it. "Marry me, Scott. Let's run off to Vegas and find an Elvis impersonator and become Mr. and Mr. Stilinski."

"Only if you have enough wolfsbane so I can enjoy it too." Scott closed the door behind him, giving Stiles a look, "And how come we're taking your last name?"

"Because it's alliterative. Stiles Stilinski, Scott Stilinski - work with me here." He started up the stairs towards his bedroom, Scott following not too far behind.

"Stiles isn't even your real name though! And that's not alliterative with Stilinski!"

"Well it doesn't work well with McCall either, so obviously we'd still have to stick with Stilinski."

He could practically hear Scott rolling his eyes by the time they were sitting on his bed. He dropped the pizza boxes onto his desk and took the shopping bag of chips from Scott. "Wolfsbane and stuff is in the closet if you wanna grab it. Don't grab the bong, I think there's a crack in it."

Stiles opened the top box and grabbed two slices, folding them together and taking a huge bite. "Oh my god..." he muttered around his full mouth, "I'm starving. I ate an entire pack of bacon earlier." He didn't mention the bag of cookies and carton of milk that came after. Or the leftover tuna pasta salad. Or the slightly questionable protein drink he found in the back of the fridge.

"Dude! You weren't kidding about cracking this!" Scott said from the closet, crawling out with a baggie of wolfsbane and a pack of rolling papers, "Did you throw it against the wall or something, jeez."

"Oh shut it." He swallowed the huge bite of pizza in his mouth and took another, plopping onto his desk chair. "Start rolling, Wolfbreath."

Getting high always made things easier. It made his brain slow down just enough and his normal levels of anxiety even out. His panic attacks had lessened when he started smoking and just having something to do with his hands and mouth made him just a little less hyperactive. There was less of a chance of getting cancer from weed than there was from cigarettes. So, kind of a win-win? After the first hit, an hour seemed to pass like a minute.

He watched as Scott leaned back against his pillows, blowing a couple of smoke rings - another skill Stiles could never pick up. Not only was his best friend a super-powered, werewolf Jesus, he was some kind of smoking guru. So unfair.

"Aw man..." Scott said through the haze, his voice just this side of hoarse and eyes lidded, "I missed this, not, like, just because it took a long time to figure out how to make it work, but...y'know, it's been so busy."

"Yeah, I get you." Stiles looked at his own joint, shrugging as he took another hit. He tossed the roach into the ashtray he'd placed next to the pizza boxes and coughed a little. It was now or never, he figured, and better to get it out now. "So, uh...I think there's something wrong with me."

Scott blinked slowly and looked at him, and for a second Stiles thought the words hadn't reached Scott's brain, but then he swallowed and blinked a few times - trying to hold onto what little sobriety he had left. "What do you mean?" he managed to choke out, his face doing that thing it always did when Scott worried.

He leaned back in his seat, playing with the ashtray and not really looking at Scott, "I've been really tired...like, I'll sleep for nine or ten hours and feel like I just closed my eyes or I'll put a few books away at work and feel like I need to sit down." The ashtray almost fell off and he reached over to grab it, "Dizzy too. I get up to fast and get disoriented, I almost fell down the stairs yesterday because Dad forgot his keys and I needed to run down to let him in."

"Maybe you have the flu or something? How long has this been happening?"

"A couple of weeks? I don't know. I don't think it's the flu, Scott."

"How do you know? Did you talk to a doctor? Maybe you should talk to a doctor, or something, I dunno, it sounds like the flu, Stiles."

"Because the flu wouldn't make my fucking nipples hurt, Scott!"

And that made an awkward silence. Years later, Stiles would go on to say how many gay babies were born in that one moment.

"That part wasn't supposed to come out." Stiles said all too quietly.

"Your nipples hurt?" Scott snickered, biting his lip. That bastard was way too close to laughing for Stiles' comfort.

"Dude! This isn't funny! What if I have, I dunno, some kind of rare nipple cancer or something? This could be a serious issue."

"I don't think nipple cancer exists, bro."

"Well I have to have something! You can smell stuff like that, can't you? Sniff me!"

Scott frowned, "I don't want to sniff you, that's weird."

"I need to know if something's wrong! Please, come on! I'll take off my shirt if I have to."

"God! No! Just...fine, leave your shirt on and I'll sniff you." He got off the bed and groaned, muttering about how he couldn't believe he was doing this, before sniffing the air around Stiles. He frowned a bit before getting a little closer, sniffing at Stiles' neck.

Stiles shivered, "Well?"

"Just...you smell more magic-y? Like...you always kind of smell magic-y since you started taking those lessons with Deaton, but it's more now. Like you rolled in a pile of magic."

"...'rolled in a pile of magic', Scott?"

"You know what I mean. But, um...you also smell a little like Derek, but not really?"

That made Stiles pale a little. It wasn't really a huge secret that he and Derek had hooked up, how could it be when most of his friends were werewolves, but it had been only one time. It was Stiles' birthday and his dad had been down in Sacramento for some mandatory terrorism conference and Scott had been off doing something with Allison. He was alone and kind of miserable and, surprise, Derek had actually invited him over.

Somehow that had lead to a weekend marathon of the best (and only) sex he ever had. By the next Monday, Erica was complaining about how he "reeked" of Derek and he was sore in places he didn't even know existed.

But in the past four weeks, he hadn't even seen Derek. It was like the older man had gotten scared that Stiles was going to ask for a ring or something and went into hiding. (Stiles knew that wasn't true, though, there had been a huge pack meeting thing up in Portland about a week after his birthday that Scott had almost gotten dragged into and Derek had spent at least two and a half of those weeks up there, the rest was probably just Sourwolf being Sourwolf.)

Stiles scooted away from Scott, "So what? Derek gave me some kind of werewolf chlamydia?"

"Why do you jump right to chlamydia? It could be the clap or were-herpes or something." Scott paused, "Maybe he caught something from Ms. Blake?"

"We are not going there."

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't know, Stiles. Maybe Deaton will?"

Stiles groaned, "Of course my life comes down to getting examined by a vet." He pushed up from the chair, and picked up the empty pizza boxes. "Open a window before you hide my shit, Scotty, I don't think we're gonna be back before Dad gets home."


So I kind of wanted to get this out before there's a chance that Derek might not be an alpha anymore, because I've been working on this idea with a friend of mine for a very long time and the whole story is built around Derek's alpha status and family history and yeah.

Erica and Boyd are back because somehow magic. I don't know. I just want them back. I'll try to bring in as much of the next few episodes and 3B as I can, but I can't promise everything will be there.