3.

It's not that Stiles wanted Ariel to 'go for him'. He just wondered why Jackson was so sure he wouldn't. Stiles was funny, he cared about people, he was nice, and he wasn't ugly. So what was wrong with him?

Nothing. At least he couldn't think of anything. Except that he talked too much. And maybe his inability to be quiet and still for more than five seconds irritated people. That could have been it…

So maybe there were some things wrong with Stiles. But he didn't think that made him completely unappealing.

And that was something that he could easily wrap his head around as he laid in his bed. Stiles had never had a girlfriend, and no girl had ever even showed any interest in him. Whenever he was around, they just seemed to run in all the opposite directions. Like he was some type of plague. Maybe he was.

Lydia didn't even look at him. It was like he didn't even exist in her mind. Even when he was right in front of her, he was a ghost. All she ever paid any attention to was Jackson.

And Stiles hated Jackson.

It would be okay if the guy dated the fucking girl of Stiles' dreams and he wasn't such a jerk. Then at least Stiles would get it. But no, Jackson was one of the lowest people Stiles had ever had the displeasure of stumbling across in his very young life, and he just couldn't grasp what was so great about the guy that Lydia just couldn't give him up.

He was rich. Big deal. He was objectively good looking. So what? Jackson Whitmore was a horrible human being.

And that was Stiles kept repeating to himself for the next ten minutes as Derek stood in his window sill watching him talk to himself.

Eventually though, Derek let out a huff and Stiles almost had a heart attack.

"Derek! Oh. My. God!" Stiles cried at the top of his lungs. He felt relieved his father wasn't home or else he would be in some big trouble, and Derek would be getting shot.

"Did you talk to him?" Derek asked with a slight laugh to his voice.

Stiles couldn't believe his ears when he heard it. A laugh? Coming from Derek? There was just no way. He had to be hearing things.

"Talk to who?" Stiles shot back with an irritated tone, sitting up to look the werewolf in the eye.

"That mermaid guy," Derek replied.

"Mermaid guy… Oh! You mean Ariel?" Derek nodded. "Was that a Little Mermaid reference? Derek? No way."

Rolling his eyes, Derek pushed away from the window and walked over to Stiles bookshelf. "I had a childhood."

"I'm sure…"

"So?"

Stiles watched as Derek went through his bookshelf for the umpteenth time. He didn't know why the guy did it every time he came in the room. It wasn't like Stiles ever put anything new over there. Whatever books he was reading at the time, Stiles got from either school or the library. And they stayed on his desk until he was done with them and they went back.

"I mean, I didn't ask him his life story, Derek. What do you want me to say? 'Hey, Ariel. I know you don't really know me, but where are you from and why are you here and oh yeah, my friend says you smell weird, so what do you use when you take showers?"

"He might take baths…"

Stiles swore he was about to faint. "Since when do you have a sense of humor? Your idea of a joke used to be shoving me up against walls and growling your hot, dog breath in my face."

Derek growled and went over to the desk and sat in the chair. Same thing he always did.

"Stiles I'm serious. He doesn't seem right," Derek said with a more serious tone to his voice.

"Well then why aren't you asking Scott to do something then?" Stiles asked.

Derek stood up and went back to the window, which Stiles was fully sure that was closed earlier, and put one leg out before turning to face Stiles. "You're smarter." And with that, the man was gone.

Stiles was caught off guard by the comment, but he had to agree. Scott wasn't the sharpest tool on the shed; in fact, Scott wasn't even in the shed at all. Stiles loved the guy, but he was pretty dumb.

And so Stiles was finally able to get some sleep without all of the heavy thoughts from earlier keeping him awake.

On Monday, Stiles felt well rested and was prepared to take on the day and anything it threw at him. He was in such a good mood, that when Scott came over with that pained expression on his face, Stiles actually meant it when he asked what was wrong.

"Allison is seeing someone," Scott sighed.

Stiles couldn't say that he wasn't surprised. When Allison left Scott, he didn't really take it seriously. They always had fights. Stiles just thought they were going to end up getting back together in the next two weeks. That's why he never really showed much support when Scott got like this. But to hear that the girl was seeing someone else, that was a shocker.

"Who?" Stiles asked, closing his locker and turning to head to the cafeteria.

Suddenly, Scott's face went from pained, to furious within a matter of nano-seconds. Stiles would have found it funny if… well, he did find it funny. But he didn't laugh. That would have been mean.

"That Matt guy," Scott spat out. And then he looked over to the left where Stiles eventually did too, and sure enough, he saw Allison and Matt, sitting next to each other.

It wasn't like they were doing anything, really. They were just talking. But she had that look on her face that she used to get when she talked to Scott. So, Stiles understood.

"Screw Allison, Scott. If she's moving on, you should too." Stiles tried to give his best supportive tone. And, last year, it would have been needed. But now, Scott could really just about get any girl he wanted. The whole werewolf thing had really helped him beef up. And he had the whole innocent thing going for him. Girls threw themselves at him constantly, but having been so wrapped up in Allison, of course he never noticed.

Stiles noticed.

And so had Allison. Which, now that Stiles thought about it, was probably why she had broken up with Scott. Though, it wasn't fair to him. Scott never did anything. She just let her jealousy get the best of her, Stiles guessed.

But yeah, Scott could pull another girl easy. He could even get a guy if he wanted. Stiles could remember once when Scott tackled Danny on the field during practice, and Danny couldn't stop blushing after Scott gave him one of those lopsided grins of his and helped him up.

Old chick magnet Scott.

Stiles wished he had been the one to get bitten and turn all sexy. Not that he wanted any of the werewolf problems that come along with being bitten. Like full moon crazy nights, and hearing everything. Stiles already heard enough in his own head, he didn't need to hear other people talking too. No, Stiles just wanted the sexy part.

Stiles had been thinking so much about what it would have been like to suddenly get any girl he wanted, that when he walked directly past Lydia, he hadn't even seen her. And he also hadn't noticed the way she had flipped her hair when he walked by. And he definitely didn't see her face when he walked straight by.

But he did see Ariel in front of him, being molested by Danny… unsurprisingly. Stiles had finally come to the conclusion that Danny wanted to permanently conjoin bodies with the boy the way he was always wrapped around him from behind.

"Hey, Ariel," Scott yelled walking over to the two.

Stiles was lost. Since when did Scott know the guy? The last he checked, Scott barely even knew his name.

But he followed Scott over and watched as Ariel smiled in their direction. Whether it was directed towards Scott, or because Danny appeared to be trying to eat his ear, Stiles wasn't sure.

"Hey, Scott. Stiles."

Stiles just waved.

Danny relinquished his hold on the boy and walked over to throw an arm around Stiles.

"Hey! What's up, Stiles? How you been?" The slightly taller teen asked.

Scott had this confused look on his face.

"I didn't know you two were that close…" he said.

Stiles shook his head. "We're no-"

"Yeah! I love this guy. He went to a party with us on Friday," Danny all but shouted, shaking Stiles a little.

Scott looked to Stiles.

"You went to a party?" He sounded like he was in disbelief. Stiles could admit to being a little hurt by that.

"Yeah, I mean… Danny invited me and… I went… I guess?"

Stiles didn't really know what was happening right then. Yeah, he knew he had gone to the party, but that was it. It wasn't like he and Danny hung out the whole time and suddenly became best friends. In fact, they barely spoke at all. Stiles couldn't remember having but one real conversation with the guy the entire night.

And that conversation wasn't necessarily something that made friends.

Danny finally took his arm from around Stiles' shoulders and began to walk towards the table he normally sat at, with Jackson, Lydia, and Ariel.

"You should come sit with us, Stiles," Danny offered.

Stiles all but fell out onto the floor. He was so confused right then, but he just nodded.

"Sure… can Scott-"

"Of course, yeah," Danny said, following behind Ariel who had and apple and box of salad in his hands. "Just get your food and come over."

Stiles nodded again ad turned around, where he was met with a very skeptical looking Scott.

"What was that all about?" his best friend asked.

Stiles shrugged. "I don't know."

"So you wanna sit with them?"

Stiles looked over his shoulder to where Danny was pulling Ariel into his lap, and felt something in his stomach again.

"It would be rude not to, right?"

Stiles watched Jackson's face as he neared the table. And then he noticed the way the guy's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he and Scott sat their trays down onto said table.

"NO! NO! GET THE FUCK UP STILLINSKI! YOU CAN NOT SIT HERE!"

Stiles didn't ignore the way he had nothing to say to Scott. He made a note to ask his friend about that at some point.

"Jackson, you're such a girl…" Ariel drawled as he rolled his eyes. He was in a seat now, and Danny was leaning over to whisper something in Jackson's ear. And as soon as he did, Jackson glared at Stiles with such intensity that he thought that the guy might actually succeed in hurting him this time.

"You're one to talk…" Jackson mumbled.

"Shut up," Ariel shot back.

"Make me."

Ariel threw a cherry tomato at Jackson and hit him square on the nose, and then hid behind Danny when Jackson tried to grab at him, both Ariel and Jackson laughing the entire time.

Stiles just looked on in disbelief. Not so much at Ariel, but at Jackson. There was a smile on his face. And not one of those devious, evil, smirks Jackson got all the time either. It was a real, genuine smile. Accompanied by laughter. Stiles was beginning to think that this whole day had been a dream.

And he continued to think that for the rest of lunch. The entire time, Danny and Scott were talking about lacrosse stuff, and Jackson was hovering between talking with Lydia, and playing around with Ariel. Literally, playing!

Ariel threw food at Jackson. Jackson would throw paper at Ariel. They would hit each other. Once Ariel even missed and threw an open ketchup packet at Jackson getting it all over his sweater. Stiles had expected all hell to break loose, but all Jackson did was laugh and take the sweater off.

So, when Stiles was walking out of the cafeteria next to Scott, there were a lot of things that didn't make sense to him anymore. But Scott was the one who asked the first question.

"You barely paid Lydia any attention that whole time, Stiles. You think you're finally getting over her?"

Stiles paused. Had he really not paid the girl any mind that entire time? Once he thought about it, he realized that no, he hadn't. He hadn't even really looked her way other than when she happened to be in his line of vision. That was weird.

Maybe he was getting over his crush in her.

"Huh… I guess so…"

Stiles sat in front of his computer trying to conceive a thought good enough to include in the essay he was in dire need of beginning. So far, the only thing he had gotten down was the title page. And he wasn't even sure if he was completely satisfied with that.

Eventually he gave up and leaned back in his chair to let out a loud sigh. Stiles knew he wasn't going to get anything done if he didn't concentrate, but he couldn't. Not on the paper at least. Stiles' mind was fixated on Lydia, and why he hadn't been paying her any attention lately.

In the back of his mind, Stiles knew why. He knew exactly what, or who it was that was keeping Lydia from his thoughts.

It was Ariel.

But Stiles didn't want to admit that right now. He wasn't ready to admit that right now. He wasn't ready to admit that the reason he had all but forgotten about the girl of his dreams was because of some guy he had just met.

Stiles wasn't into guys. Or, he didn't think he was. He had ever been interested before, so why would he all o the sudden be now? There wasn't even any reason for him to be so infatuated with the boy. They had barely had two whole conversations.

But, Stiles did remember the way his heart stopped and restarted when Ariel grabbed his hands. But, that wasn't because Stiles had a crush on him. His heart never stopped when he looked at Lydia.

But then, she never even grazed him let alone took his hands into her own.

Still, it didn't mean Stiles had a crush. It just meant that he was surprised. Yeah, that was it. Stiles was surprised by it. He didn't expect any form of physical contact and when he felt it, his body reacted.

That didn't explain why he had been so adamant about calling Ariel and different parts of his body pretty…

Stiles leaned back and sighed again, only this time, he leaned a little too far and he fell backwards onto the floor with a loud thud.

"What was that, Stiles?!" he heard his father holler up the stairs.

Squirming to upright himself, Stiles stood and rubbed his neck.

"Nothing, Dad!"

Picking the chair up and putting it back under the desk, Stiles walked over to his bed and fell over onto it. He laid there for a few minutes with his face buried deep into his pillow until he heard his father call his name again.

"Stiles!"

He rolled over onto his back so that he could yell into the air.

"WHAT!"

"You have company," the sheriff yelled back up.

Stiles hopped up immediately. He just assumed it was Scott since… well since no one else ever came to see him. Not that anyone really should. It wasn't like he had a great, long list of friends who just popped up at random points in the evening.

Not unless you counted Derek and his minions. Stiles could remember vividly the time Erica had climbed through his window as he was getting dressed.

She whistled at him for the next three weeks.

"Tell him to come up," Stiles half yelled, because he knew his dad was already sending Scott up anyway. No formality with that man. You would think that being the sheriff would make someone a bit stricter with house rules. The only rules Stiles had to follow were to be in at a reasonable time on school nights and not leave his underwear in the bathroom.

It was an old habit he was ever quite able to shake, and so since they no longer got left on the bathroom floor, they got strewn out across his bedroom floor. Amongst other things of course.

Stiles was just lying back down when his door opened and someone walked in. the first thing he saw was long, dark brown hair, and in that moment, he knew that Scott wasn't the guest.

It was Ariel.

"Hey," the long haired boy said, looking around.

Stiles shot up instantly and stood at attention. He was more than a little surprised to see him here.

"Hi…" he said. "How do you know where I live?"

Ariel flipped his hair back and pointed out of the window.

"I live across the street. I never knew you lived here until I saw you driving that jeep that night at the party. And then I realized that that was the jeep that I see across the street from me all the time. So, I put two and two together," Ariel explained.

Stiles' mouth was slightly agape, but then he licked his lips quickly and closed it.

"Oh… well… what's up?" Stiles compiled of the top of his head. So many other things were roaming through his head at the moment though, he was shocked that he could even say that much.

"Nothing, really. I just wanted to come over and say hi," Ariel looked around Stiles' room a bit and smiled. "Your rooms a mess."

And as soon as Stiles heard that, he realized that his room looked like a hurricane had just tore through it. He immediately scrambled to pick all the clothes up off of the floor and throw them into the hamper. He was so into it that he didn't see Ariel picking up a few things himself. And amongst those things were Stiles' underwear.

Stiles looked over and saw what he was doing, and his face burst into flames.

In Ariel's hand, was a pair of Stiles' boxers. The worst pair he could possibly pick up; the Power Rangers pair.

"These are cute," Ariel said, laughing a bit.

Stiles snatched everything from Ariel's hands and threw them with the rest of the clothes.

"I… they're not mine," Stiles blurted out.

Ariel's eyes widened.

"Whose are they then?"

"Scott's."

And at that moment Stiles wanted to kill himself more than any other moment in his life. He wanted to just fall into a hole and die. At least then he wouldn't have to die of mortification.

"Oh," was all Ariel offered.

"I mean, he left them here."

"Right."

"When he spent the night, and he borrowed some of my clothes."

"I get it."

"We're not gay," Stiles put in at the last second to a snickering Ariel.

"I didn't think you were."

Walking over to his bed, Stiles sat back down and began to fidget with his thumbs. He hadn't been this nervous since he was almost eaten alive on Scott's first full moon. And even then he had been able to concentrate enough on chaining his best friend up in order to remain alive to not fidget. But he wasn't concentrating on anything right now.

Except the reason he was nervous.

Stiles monitored Ariel's every step, the way he seemed to move so fluidly. It reminded him of Lydia in a way, only Lydia's step had such a force to it. She walked with such power, whereas Ariel seemed to just glide. Until he sat down on the bed beside Stiles, and took his hands again.

"Stop fidgeting. You're making me nervous too."

"I'm not nervous," Stiles lied.

"Good. Because I don't know why anyone would be so uneasy all the time." Ariel replied as he slowly let go of Stiles' hands. Then he looked Stiles directly in the eye. "Remember what I said about focusing?"

Stiles nodded. He remembered vaguely that the boy had said something about how he focused on one thing whenever his min was racing or something along those lines. And Stiles took his advice that time, just as he was now.

Stiles was focusing. On Ariel's eyes.

He knew the boy was talking, only because he could see his mouth moving in the bottom of his line of vision. But Stiles wasn't listening. He wasn't ignoring him either. He just wasn't paying any attention. He was too caught up in staring into the soft, brown warmth of Ariel's eyes.

He could take his mind off of the way they seemed to smile whenever he did. Or how they seemed to have little golden flecks in them that only became visible when the light hit them at just the right angle.

He couldn't look away from them, not even long enough to remember how to breathe, because he seemed to have forgotten how to in between when Ariel started talking and now. But, when he finally did take a breath, he realized that the only thing his nose was able to pick up on were mangos.

And he began to lean in closer, to get a better sense of the smell, until Ariel shifted completely and Stiles fell over.

"Danny. What are you doing here?" Ariel asked as he rose from his spot on the bed to walk over to his boyfriend.

Stiles looked up as he was sitting back up and noticed Danny standing in the doorway with a smile on his face as he proceeded to pull Ariel up into a disgustingly cute embrace.

"I went over to your place, your mom said you were here," Danny said before placing a small kiss to Ariel's lips, causing Stiles to get that weird feeling in the pit of his stomach again. "What are you doing over here?"

Ariel looked back to Stiles and smiled. "Did you know Stiles lived here?"

Danny nodded in affirmation. "Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Ariel complained and smacked Danny on the chest.

Danny shrugged. "I didn't think you cared. It's not like you knew him before Friday."

"True…"

Danny sat Ariel down before walking over to Stiles and pulling him up into a swift, but tight hug.

"What's up?"

Stiles struggled to catch the breath that had been forced out of him with the hug before he could reply.

"Nothing," he said. "I was just trying to work on this essay before I gave up and Ariel showed up."

"Cool. Well, me and Ari are gonna go hang out in his room. I'd ask if you wanted to come over, but…" Danny wiggled his eyebrows a bit and Stiles got the message.

Loud and clear.

"Right! Right, well… I need to get back to work anyways," Stiles sputtered.

"Right. So we'll leave you alone then," Danny said, walking out the doorway with his arm around Ariel's waist.

"Bye, Stiles," Ariel said with a smile on his face.

And when that feeling came back again, Stiles just waved back, with a dumb smile plastered on his.

its moving slow, i know, but it will get there. are you at least liking it so fa though? also, if anyone is into beta-ing, and could also explain to me just how that works, let me know. be warned, i have a very unconventional schedule of writing, so you would have to be ready for that lol