A/N: Originally posted on ao3 under the pen name youngjusticewriter. Blink and you'll miss the Artemis Fowl and Buffy references.
Stiles is a hundred-forty-seven pounds of pale skin that makes him look like a vampire (yet that isn't enough to get Lydia's attention or any other girl's attention despite how much they love Edward not that Stiles wants any girl that isn't Lydia) and fragile bones. Stiles, wisely, - always smart, sometimes too damn smart if you ask his dad - never picks a fight despite his dream job was being Batman.
His wit, or rather his sarcasm, is his defense. His tongue can be as sharp as any kiitchen knife if he's not too busy rambling.
[\]
Back before his mom got sick (and before little boys give mercy through pillows because that's what mom asked - that's what she accused him, along with monsters from Mythomagic being real, of over the months to his father and Stiles' grief), she would cook for dad. Mom was a cool mom. (She was the greatest mom - she was as great as Wonder Woman ...except Wonder Woman wasn't a mom but the point still stood - there ever was until one day she woke up not knowing who he was.)
They would cook together. She even let him use one of their kitchen knives to cut vegetables but never raw meat. He also didn't touch the stove.
"It's good practice," she would tell him in a whisper as if it was a secret. Her eyes, he wouldn't come to realize until years later, were just a little bit sad.
[\]
Despite the saying, the two of them can keep a secret from dad without one of them dead. Then there was only one - just Stiles alone in their house that seems so much bigger than before with dad taking more shifts at station.
Despite his over active imagination he can't imagine the house smaller for just him (but then again he doesn't want it to be just Stiles).
[\]
The first time Stiles googles something to clean the house - how to get rid of spiders - he had just thrown a forgotten and a sip from empty glass bottle of adult juice at a spider. Stiles hates spiders (which no Scott, they aren't bugs).
And snakes.
He hates those two things more than he does Jackson whose the bully at their school.
Stiles that day learns peppermint oil keeps spiders away, like apples do the doctor,
and that cuts from glass hurt more than a paper cut.
[\]
His dad stops leaving adult juice on the dinning room table, the living room, and the kitchen counter after that.
He doesn't stop drinking but it's progress.
[\]
Stiles starts cooking soon after. Progress and someone is gotta take care of dad since mom is no longer here and dad's not taking care of himself.
Despite being a tee total klutz, Stiles is good with a cutting vegetables, raw meat and not chopping one of his fingers off. Which totally happens more than you think. (That, fingers accidentally being chopped off while cooking, is the sixth things Stiles googles because the question just burns and begs to be answered not because it helps clean the house or is a cooking recipe.)
His mom use to tell him (by his real name not Stiles, Stiles is the name he goes by since nobody - not even his teachers despite them being you know teachers- can pronounce his name) you have to be clever be able to wield one. Stiles, in his dad's words that dad says with fondness and tired eyes, is too clever for his own good.
[\]
Stiles has grey eyes. They're not his dad's nor his mom's.
He once clambered like a monkey onto both of his dad's grandparents' laps to peer up at their eyes during a summer he was staying with them. They're not grey either.
His mom's parents died when she was young but she still had a photo of them. They're eyes aren't Stiles' disturbing (Creepy, freaky, take you pick and would you like chili cheese fries with that Jackson?) grey.
Stiles doesn't know what to think about that but it, along with his ADHD medicine, is just another thing to keep him up at night.
[\]
There's a man in the hospital that Scott's mom is a nurse at and Stiles' mom died in. He's in coma because of something that happened to Hales' years ago.
Stiles keeps hiding in his room when his mom was sick until he realized every time he visits he gets nightmares of smoke on his tongue, fire licking his body and teeth tearing into his body.
Once is an accident, twice is an coincidence, three times is a pattern, four is just no - he can even say no in Spanish, he googled basic Spanish words one night and stayed up until morning learning to pronounce them - Stiles, while sadly not Batman, is not one of those stupid boys in one of those horror movies thank you very much.
Stiles has enough problems with restless nights that are filled with the glow of his computer because hey if he can't sleep he google or play an online game. (Stiles has priorities believe it or not.)
[\]
Maybe it's the medicine, the peppermint oil, grease of chili cheese frys that lingers in the air even after Stiles consumes them like a starved man, and energy drinks that just clogs a monster's nose is why Stiles is never hunted because he's a demi-god. Maybe it's because Beacon Hills is only a hell mouth after Scott gets bite by Peter.
If Stiles was know he surely would find out the reason because it would burn in his mind begging to be answered. His scent would become stronger to smell to monsters (other than hunters and werewolves that is). So maybe it's a good thing Stiles doesn't know. He's got enough crap to deal with his hellmouth of a town and that's without adding Greek and Roman mythology shit to his plate.