Scott was warm, so much so that Elsa could feel the warmth radiating from his body as she walked alongside him towards the Jeep. Far in the back of her mind she wondered how a person could possibly deal with being so naturally warm, surely it was a hindrance at times, especially when trying to get to sleep – she hated being too warm in bed.
"Elsa?" Scott asked, dragging the blonde from deep within her own mind just as they neared the Jeep.
"Mmm?" She mumbled quietly in reply, desperately trying to focus on what it was he was saying and not the smell of his cologne which was rapidly invading her senses, making her feel lightheaded.
"I asked where your friends were…Shane? Oliver?"
"Oh those assholes." Elsa's words were said in jest, something made evident by the beaming grin that lit up her face as the mere mention of her two very best friends. "They ditched me while I was in the shower. Oliver is too in love with Shane to remember that I also exist it would appear."
Scott pulled the passenger door of the jeep open and moved to let Elsa clamber into the back before climbing into the front seat himself. "Well it's a good job we spotted you at the side of the road."
"My heroes…" Elsa mused and beside her Liam Dunbar sniggered. She hadn't even noticed him when she'd climbed into the Jeep and she failed to hide the look of confusion that flashed upon her features at the sight of him. She'd seen Scott and his friends hanging out with Liam Dunbar quite a bit in the past year or so, and although she found the age difference between them a little odd she also liked the fact that Scott clearly didn't care what people thought when it came to who he chose to be friends with.
"So Kirsch…" Stiles twisted his body in the driver's seat so that he was looking directly at her. "How's your mom?" He smirked, one that caused his chocolate brown eyes to sparkle mischievously and his eyebrows to wiggle suggestively.
Elsa rolled her oceanic orbs and cocked her head to the side. For as long as she could remember the boys at her school had lusted after her mom, Stiles Stilinski especially, there had even been a time three or so years ago that he'd followed Elsa around the hallways singing his own version of 'Stacy's Mom' by Fountains of Wayne purely because he knew just how much it irritated the blonde.
"She's brilliant, how's your girlfriend?"
Stiles' eyes narrowed at her and his head jerked as he spoke. "Touché." He muttered as he turned back towards the steering wheel, turning the keys in the ignition and attempting to start the car.
"Has she heard yet?" Scott asked quietly, ignoring Stiles' frustration when the Jeep failed to start not once, but twice.
"Tonight, she finds out tonight." Stiles replied, closing his eyes and pursing his lips as he turned the key in the ignition once again. It appeared that third time was the charm and this time the engine turned over, bringing the Jeep to life.
"Finds out what?" Elsa piped up, leaning forward from the backseat, resting her elbows on Scott and Stiles' seats up front.
"That's none of your busi-.."
"Finds out if she got into senior year." Liam cut Stiles off midsentence and the older boy glared at him in the rear-view mirror.
"Thank you Liam." Sarcasm laced Stiles' tones and Elsa shot Liam an amused glance as she settled back into her seat.
"I'm sure she'll be fine." She replied quickly, a genuine comment rather than an afterthought.
For the next few minutes the car journey was silent and Elsa turned to watching the heavy rain out of the window and listening to the storm. It was only when Scott and Stiles began talking about a topic that she'd been somewhat invested in over recent months that her ears pricked up and she redirected her attention from the weather outside.
"So what's happening with Kira?"
"She gets back in town tonight actually."
"…and have you guys spoke, you know, about…"
"The breakup?"
"Mmmhmm…" Stiles never once took his eyes off the road as he drove, and Scott's eyes were directed down at his hands, neither one of them noticed Elsa – and Liam – eavesdropping in the backseat.
"Nope."
"So it's still on then, New York hasn't changed anything?"
"If anything her going to New York made me realise that this is what we both needed, it wasn't right we depended on each other too much…" Scott sighed heavily and leant his head back on the headrest. Behind him Elsa fidgeted awkwardly in her seat, not entirely sure that this was the kind of conversation she should so openly be listening to.
"She's still a part of the pack though right?" Liam cut into yet another conversation and Scott glanced over his shoulder towards the younger boy with a smile.
"Yeah, always."
"You guys call yourself the pack?" Elsa teased, her blonde brows rising up her forehead ever so slightly in amusement. Liam's mouth fell open and Stiles watched her cautiously in the rear-view mirror as he drove.
"The wolf pack yeah…you know like in The Hangover movie?" Scott explained, and despite the fact she didn't completely believe him she nodded her head regardless.
"For sure, me Oli and Shane call ourselves the Potato Commodores so really who am I to judge…"
Each one of the boys turned to face her at this point - Stiles only doing so after stopping at a red light – their expressions ones of sheer amusement, laced with just a hint of confusion. Elsa merely laughed, giving a light shrug.
The remainder of the journey to the school was relatively uneventful, they picked Malia up on the way and she spent most of the drive glaring at the back of Stiles' head, angry at him for telling Liam about her struggling at school, and furious that Liam had told Elsa who was a girl that Malia barely even knew let alone was friends with. Elsa had assured her that she'd be successful and the pair had spent the rest of the journey discussing Malia's new haircut – one Elsa very much approved of. When they arrived at the high school they piled out one by one, each of them hurrying for cover from the relentless rain, Elsa thanked Stiles for the ride, said a final 'good luck' to Malia and flashed Scott a quick smile and a wave before disappearing in search of Shane and Oliver.
"What the hell is this Else?" Shane had spotted Elsa long before the blonde had caught sight of her, and stood under the veranda with arms folded and a perfectly shaped eyebrow kinked. "Was that Scott McCall, also known as the love of your life, whose car you just got out of?"
"No."
"No?"
"That was Stiles Stilinski's car." Elsa raised her eyebrows and shot Shane a smug look, her best friend merely rolled her eyes in return and linked her arm through Elsa's.
"Whatever, you can tell me everything later Oliver's waiting inside." Elsa raised a brow, the only people that called Oli by his full name tended to usually be over the age of twenty five at the very least.
"Oh well we best not keep Oliver waiting."
"Shut up." Shane tried to hide the small smile that danced on her blossom pink lips at the mention of Oli's name – she'd never admit to it, but Elsa knew that Shane liked him just as much as he liked her.
The pair stepped arm in arm through the double entrance doors and into the main hallway. Beacon Hills High school was perhaps even more depressing in the night time than it was in the cold light of day. Despite the promised maintenance work over the summer the majority of the lockers remained dented or damaged in some way, many of them missing doors and a couple marked with deep almost animalistic scratches. Elsa frowned as she walked the hallway with Shane, who too was uncharacteristically silent.
"Senior year." Shane finally breathed out as they reached the library, discovering the rest of the student body, some of whom were chatting amongst themselves on the lower levels; others were stood patiently in a long queue that led up the steps and in amongst the bookshelves.
"Well you two took your time." Oliver Blackwood teased as he strolled towards the pair. Oliver was Elsa's oldest friend – aside from Shane – he was the first person she'd sat next to in kindergarten and someone she honestly couldn't imagine her life without. She'd watched Oli Blackwood change from the awkward nerdy kid with glasses, to the traditionally handsome high school jock that stood before her today, if she didn't think of him as more of a brother than a friend she probably would've described him as being handsome, if you're into that effortlessly beautiful kind of look.
"Elsa was busy making new friends without us." Shane directed a knowing look towards Elsa who simply rolled her blue eyes.
"I'd hardly call Scott McCall a new friend Shane, he's lived across the street from me my entire life."
"…and yet today is the first time I've ever actually seen you speaking to him."
"Yeah well…" Elsa started her sentence with every intention of finishing with a valid point, but when she couldn't come up with anything she simply admitted defeat with a shrug. "…I got nothing."
"Exactly. Now let's forget about boy next door Scott McCall and let's focus of the task at hand. Senior scribe! I want to document every moment of this." Shane unlinked her arm from Elsa's and moved to stand beside Oliver who visibly lit up at the prospect of standing so close to the brunette. "Else can you take our picture?"
An exaggerated sigh fell from Elsa's pale pink lips but she smiled nonetheless, patting the pockets of her still soaked through skinny jeans in search of her phone. She checked the front and back pockets three times, and the pockets of her jacket twice before finally settling on the fact that no, she didn't have her phone. "Fuck." She muttered. Shane frowned and handed the blonde her own. The trio took a number of photographs together, some nice, some the complete and utter opposite of nice that would absolutely never been seen by anyone outside of the inner triangle (unless being used for blackmail purposes) and then, once satisfied that they had documented this truly monumental time in their life accordingly they joined the end of the seemingly endless queue that led up to the bookshelves.
"I think I left it in the car." Elsa thought aloud, leaning against a table top and staring up at the tiled ceiling. She'd served a detention in the library once and counted how many of the small tiles were up there, around one thousand six hundred and eighty if she could remember correctly.
"Your cell?" Oliver asked, craning his neck to see what it was Elsa was staring at before looking away disappointedly when it was nothing but the ceiling.
"Yeah, in fact I'm gonna run out and see if I can find Stilinski and have a look. Save my space in line?"
She didn't even wait to find out whether her friends had agreed to her request, she didn't doubt that they would have said no and then saved her a space anyways, and so with that in mind she turned on her heel and sprinted out the door. Her converse squelched as they came into contact with the ground, saturated from the rain and moulding rather uncomfortably to the shape of Elsa's foot more and more with each step she took. Elsa scanned each corridor as she hurried through them, looking for the familiar face of Stiles, or any of his friends that might be able to let her into his Jeep – she really couldn't afford to straight up lose another phone. Despite her searching she discovered only a few straggling students, some of whom were simply late and others that had skulked off into a dark corner together for one last fling before summer was officially over. Shuddering at the sight of Greenberg and one of the girls she knew to be on the soccer team, Elsa pushed open the double doors that led out to the parking lot and braced herself for the onslaught of relentless rain.
Already completely soaked to the bone Elsa didn't even feel the rain as it lashed down upon her, causing the soft curls of her hair to fall flat and stick to her face in wet strands, the grey t-shirt she was wearing now looked more like black and clung tightly to her torso, sticking uncomfortably whenever she moved. When she didn't find Stiles at his car on the far side of the parking lot she had to physically restrain herself from lashing out in irritation and kicking the old Jeep as hard as she could, instead she leant against the hood, shivering and cold.
"SCOTT!"
Elsa's head whipped to the side and in the direction that Stiles Stilinski's voice had come from. A small part of her screamed inwardly, ordering her to go back inside and to sign the god damn bookcase like she had come here in the pouring rain to do, but another much stronger part of her urged her forward, to follow the sound of Stiles' voice and to make sure that Scott was okay. The petite blonde took off at a pace her gym teacher would truly be proud of, running towards the underpass at the opposite side of the parking lot. She didn't know what she was going to find when she reached Stiles, but what she did find was unlike anything she had ever seen before in her life.
A shirtless man stood towering over Scott McCall, his skin a darkish blue and some indescribable black liquid oozing from pretty much every orifice of his body. Elsa skidded to a halt practically running into the back of Stiles, who frankly, didn't look anywhere near as surprised as she expected him too – in fact he looked more pissed off than anything else. "What the fuck is happening?" Elsa shouted her voice almost drowned out by the sound of the rain.
For the first time since she'd skidded over people turned and noticed her presence, Stiles and Malia exchanged a worried glance, Kira – who had arrived god knows when – glanced down at the sword she was carrying and Scott whose canines were elongated and eyes were burning a brilliant red did his very best to smile as the man thrust a clawed hand deep into his chest.
Elsa lunged forward, only to be stopped by Stiles who grabbed hold of her wrist. "Stiles let go of me we've got to help him!" Her words caused the Stilinski boys grip only to tighten and no matter how hard she fought to free herself, to run towards Scott, she couldn't.
An adrenaline fuelled rage like nothing Elsa had ever felt before bubbled up inside of her, her breathed slowed exponentially and she stopped pulling from Stiles grasp. She could no longer feel the dampness of her wet clothes against her skin or the cold of the rain and wind all she felt was an odd sense of calm, warm and serene. With a sudden yelp Stiles dropped Elsa's wrist from his grasp and clutched his hand against his chest, the blonde glanced over her shoulder towards him and Stiles mouth fell open when his own chocolate brown orbs locked onto not the icy blue he was expecting but a fiery orange.
"You burnt me!" His tone was accusing and Elsa frowned at him, not quite able to believe how Stiles was able to stand and make ridiculous accusations when his best friend was pretty much dying about ten feet away from them. "Elsa…you're on fire."
The moment he mentioned it, the odd sense of calm she had felt quickly washed away in its place was a burning heat, one that caused every inch of her skin to feel tight and as though it were in within an inch of cracking and peeling away. She brought her hands up in front of her face and just as he had said; her hands were engulfed in red hot flames. Elsa's eyes widened and she shook her hands vigorously in a desperate attempt to put the fire out, she didn't know much about spontaneous combustion but she figured that this was probably it.
"Oh my god!" She yelled as she waved her hands in front of her, doing everything in her power to distinguish the flames. As she shook, a rogue ball of flames peeled off from the ends of her fingertips and launched itself towards the thing that looked set to murder Scott. Hitting the creature square in the chest it gave Scott just enough time gain the upper hand and quickly put an end to the fight.
Elsa didn't notice the fight end, or the man leave, every ounce of her attention was fixated firmly on the searing pain in her hands and the flames that licked their way up her arms, charring the sleeves of her t-shirt as they went.
"Elsa you have to calm down." Scott was suddenly by her side, genuine concern ghosting across his handsome features as he watched Elsa scream in pain.
"Calm down?" She repeated incredulously "I'd like to see you fucking calm down when you're on fire Scott!"
"It will help you control it." His voice was unnervingly calm and it only served to stress Elsa out even more, why was he so okay with this? Why were all of them so okay with this? Some guy had literally just tried to murder Scott and everyone was acting as though this were simply another day in the life, like it happened all the time.
"I can't control it Scott its fire."
Before she could even properly finish her sentence the sense of calm returned, the searing pain in her hands and arms slowly ebbed away until there was nothing and the flames that had erupted from the palms of her hands disappeared. Her eyes, now back to their usual icy blue, flickered from her amazingly unscathed limbs to her hands which were grasped tightly in the hands of another person, someone she hadn't even realised was there and someone she wasn't sure she'd ever seen in her entire life. His thumbs stroked gently over the palms of her hands and his touch send shockwaves throughout her entire body, his face definitely wasn't bad to look at either.
Elsa Kirsch's stomach was doing backflips, and she open and closed her mouth multiple times to thank him, but no words came out.
"You don't remember me do you?" His words were directed to the group of students as a whole, but his hands kept a tight hold of Elsa's who remained uncharacteristically silent. "I guess I look a little different since the fourth grade…"
"Theo?" Scott questioned, earning himself a smile from the boy who nodded.
"You know him?" Malia piped up.
"He used to" Theo explained, flashing yet another devilishly handsome smile that made Elsa's knees feel weak. "Trust me I never thought I'd see you guys again, but a couple of months ago I heard about and Alpha in Beacon Hills. When I found out his name was Scott McCall I just couldn't believe it. Not just an Alpha, but a true Alpha."
"What do you want?" Scott spoke again.
"To come back to Beacon Hills, back home with my family, cause I want to be a part of your pack."
Scott, Kira, Stiles and Malia stared dumbfounded at Theo Raeken who never once dropped Elsa's hands from his own and for a long time everyone was silent.
"I think I'm going to vomit." Elsa announced suddenly, he knees giving way beneath her.
A/N: Hey guys! First of all I just want to thank you for the overwhelming response to the first chapter of From Ashes. Nineteen reviews on a chapter that wasn't even 2,000 words long has absolutely blown my mind + the vast majority of them were super positive so thank you so so so much for that! Anyways here's chapter 2, thankfully a little longer than the last. I mostly wanted to set the basis for some relationships + obviously introduce some characters that are going to play big parts in the rest of the story. As usual I hope you enjoy it and if you get the chance to review please do cause they honestly make my day! Thank you so much again guys + if you want to see more of Elsa head over to my tumblr (lydamartin) where there's tonnes of edits/headcanons/gifsets in the 'Elsa Kirsch' tag!