It was Friday night in Beacon Hills, and the pack was gathering at Derek's loft for their second weekly pack meeting. The first meeting of the week took place sometime from Monday through to Wednesday, but there was always a pack meeting on Friday, so that they could stay overnight and squeeze in some pack-bonding time. Stiles often thought it was weird how none of the adults well, found it weird themselves. A bunch of teenagers going round to an older mans –whom none of them really saw any other time, according to the town – house every weekend? And nothing about that was weird? Like, at all? Right.

Literally everyone was going tonight; Scott was coming and he was bringing Kira with him, Allison was showing up tonight with Isaac, Erica, and Boyd - who were always around anyway, Lydia had decided to come and she was dragging Aiden along – although he would totally argue that, Malia was coming, and then there was Ethan, who was bringing Danny. It hadn't really surprised Stiles that Danny knew about the werewolves for a long time, he was smarter than the majority of their year as it was, and to be honest it's like he said 'It's Beacon Hills.'.

This place is full of weird, supernatural crap. Hell, even Peter was coming, although he seemed to be integrating himself into the pack more and more as of late. Stiles wasn't sure if that was because Peter like to use the pack meetings as an opportunity to meet his sass and snark quota for the week, or if because he actually liked to be part of the pack in some small way. A bit of both, probably. It was hard to tell, Peter was cryptic like that.

And Stiles? He was coming. Oh yeah, definitely coming. Like, to every pack meeting. He might be some fragile, skinny thing, but he could use his brain pretty well if he said so himself, and he liked to make sure that there wasn't some freaking massive oncoming shit-storm due to land in Beacon Hills, especially because it seemed to end up getting his dad involved more and more often every time. Being the Sheriff has its own dangers, sure, but they weren't monsters that were out to kill him - that was only a small portion of it.

Stiles was going to do everything he could to keep his dad away from it all, while being as honest as he could. Being completely honest with his dad seemed to be getting harder each time something went down, though, and Stiles hated it. Stiles promised himself to tell his dad things if he absolutely needed to know them, but other than that he felt that he should be left out of it. So yes, Stiles would impose himself upon the pack for every single meeting, and he didn't care what the others thought about it.

Pack meetings were kinda boring at the moment; nothing seemed to be feeling an intense need to try and wreck everyones lives and kill people and just generally make a huge, supernatural mess. This meant that the meetings themselves ran short, and the rest of the evening would be spent watching movies and getting take-out and messing around. Derek was getting better at the whole Alpha thing – he started to make more of an effort after his weird Benjamin Button-y de-aging thing; he didn't spend all his time with them training and fighting and being a Sourwolf, he encouraged them to just relax and hang out at his place.

It was nice for the pack, at the very least. Stiles wasn't sure if he was really pack or not, he wasn't a were-whatever, or some other type of supernatural being, and he wasn't a hunter like Allison. He also wasn't dating anyone in the pack, like Danny. He wasn't sure where that left him. But then again, that pretty much described his life right now; not sure where he was or where he's going. That's how it's been, ever since Scott was bitten by Peter two years ago. He enjoyed hanging around with the pack, and made sure his voice was heard in the meetings, but he wasn't sure if the pack actually considered him as one of their own. But then, he supposed it didn't matter that much, because he was always going to hang around anyway.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, Stiles finished tying up his shoes and left the house. The Sheriff was at the Station all night tonight, so he didn't have to tell anyone he was going out. He walked down to his Jeep, swung open the door and jumped into the driver's seat. He started the engine, pulled out of the driveway and started his journey to the building where Derek lived, with the radio turned up – probably a little too loud, but who cares, right?

He arrived at the building quite quickly, but soon knew that his trip up to the loft would not be as quick – the elevator was broken. Again. Stiles groaned, and started to make his way up the twenty-something flights of stairs. It was going to be a long evening.

Eventually, Stiles reached the top of the staircase, at Derek's floor. About halfway up the staircase he'd decided to take his time going up; he was going to be late either way at this point, and he'd prefer not to arrive there looking like a sweaty tomato. He was still a little out of breath anyway, 25 flights of stairs (he'd counted this time) wasn't exactly easy. When he arrived at the door, he held his fist up to knock on the door, but it slid open before it could make contact. Peter was at the door, with that slight creepy, smug grin of his.

"Well, well, look who's here. You took your time."

"Actually, I did get here on time, but the elevator was broken, and for some strange reason, my supernatural ability to teleport wasn't working. Oh wait, that's right, I don't have that ability - I had to take the stairs like a normal human being (!)" Stiles retorted, gesturing with his hands as he talked.

Stiles walked past Peter and into the loft, and behind him, Peter shut the door. The rest of the pack were already here, and were seated in their usual places. Isaac, Erica and Boyd were sat on the largest sofa and were closest to Derek, with Allison next to Isaac. To the left of them on the next largest sofa, were the twins and their respective partners, along with Malia. And Scott and Kira were in armchairs to the left of them, almost forming a circle. There were two more chairs to their left, which completed the circle. Those chairs are where Stiles and Peter sat.

"You know, if you had left your house earlier, you would have had the time to get up the stairs and get to the loft on time." Peter continued, crossing his arms and lifting one of his eyebrows. Seriously, how does he do that?

"Well, I didn't exactly know that the elevator was freaking broken – I'm not psychic, you know!" Stiles was getting a little pissed of right now, Peter really pushed his buttons sometimes, the asshole.

"I sent a text to everyone to tell them, maybe you should actually check your phone instead of spending your time being a sarcastic –"

In the time it took Peter to say this, Stiles had pulled out his phone and checked it. There was no text! He turned the screen towards Peter so that he could see it.

"Look! No text, dude! How was I supposed to know beforehand if you didn't send it to me?" Ha, that would show him.

Peter looked at the phone and then up at Stiles.

"Well, I send it as a group text to all of the packs numbers. I guess I just haven't added yours to that group, then." He gave a sly grin, his teeth showing a little.

Ouch. Well, that hurt. Stiles was about to open his mouth to reply, when another voice spoke up.

"Enough! How about both of you shut up and sit down, so that we can start the pack meeting!"

It was Derek, and hey, what a surprise – he looked pissed. Stiles and Peter looked at each other, before walking over to the two remaining chairs. Peter made a point of getting there first and sitting down nearest to Derek, almost dramatically. He really could be an asshole sometimes. Stiles huffed and sat down, slouched, between Peter and Kira. He could see that Derek was looking at him, Stiles raised his eyebrows and shrugged, trying to display how little a shit he gave. Derek rolled his eyes and looked away from him, turning towards the pack.

"Right, let's begin."

It turned out that Beacon Hills was being quiet (for now, Stiles thought). There weren't any strange occurrences, accidents, attacks or deaths, and nobody had spotted or noticed anything unusual when running the perimeter of the town or in town itself. However, they weren't going to let their guard down just because it was quiet at the moment because that was usually when trouble would start up again. Derek was just closing the meeting, when Lydia untangled herself from Aiden and stood up off of the sofa, her actions capturing everyones attention immediately.

"Actually, the meeting can't end yet - I have an announcement to make."

"Are you pregnant?!" Stiles exclaimed, shooting up in his seat. Even Aiden tensed up a little at his words, looking at Lydia with his eyes a little wider.

Lydia turned and looked at him, lips pursed and an eyebrow raised. "Really, Stiles?"

Stiles laughed "No, I'm just kidding. I don't think you're stupid enough to get pregnant at seventeen."

"It's not about not being 'stupid enough' to get pregnant; it's that I wouldn't have kids without having a good job and my own home first." She replied coolly, skewering him with a look.

"That's pretty much what I was inferring, Lyds." Stiles said, sighing at the end of his sentence as he returned to his previous, slouching position on the armchair. Aiden also relaxed a little, his face returning to that of casual disinterest.

She sighed heavily, rolling her eyes before continuing "As I was saying, I have an announcement to make. Halloween is coming in a few days and I am organising a big party for it, and I require attendance from every single one of you. That includes Derek and Peter."

"You know, you organising a big Halloween party isn't exactly news. Everyone knows you throw a big party for it every year," Erica spoke up, sarcasm dripping from every word. "What I don't get is why we have to 'attend'." She said, quoting the last word with her fingers.

"Because I said so, just think of it as pack bonding."

"Fine, we'll go, won't we?" Erica asked Boyd and Isaac, who agreed, nodding their heads.

"I'll go!" Malia said, looking quite excited – she'd not experienced one of Lydia's parties before, and was already looking forward to it. Lydia smiled and looked at the rest of the group, most of which nodded their heads and smiled. Lydia's parties were always great fun.

The only people who didn't agree where Derek, Peter and Stiles. Peter was the first of the three to speak up.

"While I would love to attend a party that is comprised of the towns hormonal, pubescent, youth, I have a prior engagement that I cannot refuse. That, and the fact that I prefer to go to parties that contain people who aren't half my age. Sorry." Peter didn't sound sorry at all, and didn't expand on his 'prior engagement' either. Cryptic bastard. Lydia didn't seem to like his answer, but did not argue it. Instead, she turned on her heels slightly, so that she was facing Derek and Stiles.

They looked up at her, both of them about to speak simultaneously, when Lydia beat them to it and hushed them. "You two should at least come, Stiles; you don't really have an excuse, and I know you don't have any plans Derek because you were saying so the other day to Isaac when he asked you about planning a game night for the pack."

Derek looked at her, sighed, and said "Lydia, I just don't think it's appropriate for me to be at your party, I am a few years older than you all and even though I'm your Alpha I don't believe that I need to attend every party or event you throw. Sorry." He didn't sound very sorry, at all.

"Oh, please!" Lydia replied "You're not that much older – like, what, five years maybe?" (Stiles thought that was actually a pretty decent age gap, that's half a freaking decade! Do you know how much can happen in half a decade?! A lot!) "You can totally come to the party." She folded her arms and looked at Derek expectantly.

Derek stared at her for a minute, stony faced and silent, before sighing and nodding his head slowly.

"Fine, I'll go. Just don't expect me to be hosting or anything."

"Absolutely not, that's my job." Lydia said, a smug smile on her face. She then inclined her head to the right, lips pursed and eyebrows raised. "Stiles?"

"No."

"Stiles." she repeated, her tone more commanding this time.

"No." What, do you want me to say it in Polish? Nie!" He was starting to get a little annoyed now, he didn't want to go to this party!

Lydia was about to open her mouth again, when Derek cut her off.

"Right, I think that's enough. I'm going to call an end to the meeting. Let's just pick a film and watch it."

Stiles had had enough by this point, and stood up, making a point off brushing off his clothes – even though there was nothing to brush off, Derek always kept the loft very clean.

"Yeah, actually, I'm gonna go. I've got work to do and to be honest, I'm done with everyone right now. So, I bid thee creatures of the night farewell! See ya!"

And with that, Stiles left the loft as fast as humanly possible, ignoring the packs protests. He practically ran down the stairs – but not literally, he didn't want to die, thanks – and made a bound for his Jeep. He made it home in record time.

Stiles did his best to avoid everyone at high school on Monday, and was successful for almost the entire day, until he saw Lydia putting up flyers for her Halloween party. He immediately does a u-turn and tries to get as far away in the opposite direction as possible, before Lydia sees him. And because life was a bitch sometimes, a huge group of people got in his way, and he was not successful with his smooth escape. Like, at all.

"Stiles!" Lydia's voice rang out through the hallway as she walked up to him, the remaining flyers in her hands.

"H-Hey, Lydia, I didn't see you there! I-"

"You mean you didn't see me, even though you looked directly at me and then tried to get away?"

"Yes, I- that's exactly what I meant! Well, no, but I didn't actually see you – I looked in your…general direction, and then I decided I would go in this direction…instead." He replied, wincing a little. He knew she was not going to fall for that, not even Lenny from Of Mice And Men would believe that.

"I don't believe you."

"Yeah, I can totally respect that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go…"

Lydia pierced him with a look, with her lips pursed and one of her eyebrows raised. She leans forward and grabs him, putting her right arm through his left. She started walking him down the hallway, heading towards the exit and parking lot.

"You're not going anywhere. We are going to talk about my party, and then you are going to change your mind and agree to come to it."

"But Lydiaaa…" He whined. Why yes, he did in fact sound like a little kid. And no, he did not give a shit.

"I'll tell everyone what your first name actually is."

"You wouldn't! Well, you know what, then I'd call the police station and tell them to arrest you for libel and slander."

"But then you would have to prove that I'm lying. Which I wouldn't be, because it is your name."

"I'll call them and tell them you're blackmailing me."

"Blackmailing you to go to a really popular party? Yeah, I don't think that will 'stick', Stiles." She shot back, her fingers making the quote marks as she finished her sentence.

By this point, they had walked out of the school doors, and were now on the path next to the parking lot. Stiles looked up to the sky, inwardly cursing Lydia's well-developed brain before looking back down and kicking at the path with the toe of his sneakers, scuffing it slightly.

He looked up at her for a moment, deliberating his choices, before huffing and looking at her.

"Okay, okay. I'll go. But only because you asked me not-so-nicely."

Lydia smiled and made a happy 'hmmph' sound, before replying.
"Good. Also, I'm going to dress you for this party, there's no way I'm going to let you dress up in a crappy superhero costume or whatever."

Stiles scoffed. "Lydia, superheroes are not crappy! And I'm not a freaking doll, you can't just dress me up however you like!"

"Yeah, I don't care. I'll text you to let you know when we're going to get your costume. Bye!"

With that, the strawberry blonde turned away on her heels and walked off to her car, leaving Stiles there with a dumbfounded expression. Well, it looks like Stiles was going to be attending the party after all. And apparently, any decisions on his costume were going to be monopolised by the sharp Banshee. This was going to be just peachy.

Shopping with Lydia for their costumes had been a complete, literal nightmare. Getting Lydia's costume with her was a walk in the park - his, on the other hand, was definitely more trouble than it would be worth. Nothing exciting happens at these parties! At least, not for Stiles anyway!

Lydia had picked out some clothes to make this outfit, and it was all tight. A superhero costume would be more ill-fitting than this stuff! The theme was very ironic too.

"Lydia, I am not wearing that!"

"Trust me Stiles, you'll look great. I promise!"

"Do you know how many jokes the pack are gonna make in my general direction when they see me at the party? Because I don't think I'll even be able to count!"

Lydia smirked at him, before repeating what she had said earlier.

"Just trust me Stiles, okay?"

Stiles sighed, deflating a little.

"Okay…okay."

It was the night of the party, and Stiles had just finished both helping set up the party and getting into his…costume. And right now? He was freaking out. People – tons of people, in fact – were going to see him in this! They would see it, see him in it, and then they would all point and laugh until he left in shame. Yup, he was officially, completely, freaking out.

Through the window, he could see an incredibly large (and growing) group of people gathering outside Lydia's house, daring someone to take the initiative and ring the bell or knock on her door. At this moment, the hostess in question walked into the dining room, which had been cleared of furniture and turned into a 'spooky' ballroom, and walked up to Stiles.

"Right, some of the guests are here now, so let's get this party started. Ready, Stiles?"

Not really, he thought, sighing. "Yeah, I guess I'm ready as I'll ever be…"

Lydia seemed to notice his nervousness, and she came closer and put her hand on his shoulders.

"Hey, relax. This party is going to be fun," As she said this, the doorbell rang. She smiled at him, removed her hands from his shoulders and said "Let's go answer the door!" And with that, her hostess posture and personality was back on, turning and leaving the room.

Stiles followed after her, saying "Okay, but if this all fails and I end up killing someone by the end of the night, don't yell at me."

Lydia looked back at him, smiled, and said "I promise."

Right, I think that went fairly well, didn't you? The first two chapters are the prelude to what you guys really want; Sterek smex.

There's a lot of dialogue, and I'm sorry if that bugs you, that's just how I am writing this. There is also a generous helping of Stydia friendship in this, because it makes me feel warm inside.

Let me know what you think, leave a review if you want me to include anything or if you have any comments! Thank you for reading!