Heroes & Sidekicks

"Sometimes sidekicks make the best heroes."

Author's Note: Hey guys! Lots of stuff happening on Teen Wolf these days. I won't say anything about it because I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't gotten to see the new episodes yet, but WOW! Also Dylan O'Brien is looking more amazing than ever! So I hope you enjoy this next chapter. We get some Stiles and Royce bonding time. Please review, I love reading them! Hope you like this. I will post the next chapter soon!

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or any of its characters.

Chapter Eight

The next day at school, Royce couldn't keep the guilt from flooding her whole body. Her nerves were frayed and her muscles felt twitchy. There was a crick in her neck and her stomach felt as though it was clenched shut. She hated that she had put Scott at the top of the pack's radar, but she couldn't do anything about it. Except avoid the boys that is.

It helped that the only time she saw Stiles and Scott outside of the classroom (because she texted them a lie about meeting with a teacher during lunch) was when she was at her locker before study hall. Stiles was at a good distance from her and she couldn't help but feel her stomach twist impossibly tighter when she saw him with Lydia. She was leaning against her locker with a hand over her face and he was rubbing her arm gently, comforting her. It was not hard for Royce to walk away from that picture.

She made her way to the library for her free period to sort through her thoughts. She sat down at an open table and pulled out some books to make it look like she was doing work.

Mere minutes later, Royce noticed the doors open and Stiles ducked into the room. Royce watched him from behind a book she held up. He seemed to be actively looking for someone in particular. She sunk lower into her seat and held the book a little higher as cover. She had a feeling she knew who he was looking for.

Her book apparently wasn't nearly enough cover. Stiles spotted Royce within seconds and made a beeline toward her table. When he got there, he slumped down in the seat next to her and let his forehead fall to the table.

Royce stared at him for a long moment before speaking. "Rough day?"

He just grunted in response.

She sighed and set her book down. "Do you want to talk to me about it?" She rubbed his back in small circles.

"I'm not sure you want to hear." He spoke into the table.

She waited for him to tell her anyway, but when he didn't she nodded and returned to her notebook. She could still see him out of the corner of her eye. She ignored it when he turned his face so that his cheek rested against the table and he started picking at the corner of one of her books. But she couldn't ignore it when he let out an exaggerated sigh. She snapped her notebook shut and dropped it on the table.

"Just tell me," she ordered.

He lifted his head to rest his chin on his folded hands. "No, it's fine." He sighed again.

"Tell me. Tell me now or I'll kick you."

Stiles laughed and nodded. He sat up straight. "It's just…it's Lydia." Royce winced, but she nodded for him to continue. "I was so happy because I saw her earlier and she seemed upset. And for once when I asked her what's wrong she opened up to me. She felt comfortable enough to confide in me."

"So what's wrong?"

"All she wanted to talk about was her relationship with Jackson, which is the last thing I want to think about."

Royce rubbed her eyes and laughed. "Do you see the irony in what you're doing?"

"I know, I'm sorry. That's why I wasn't going to say anything." He looked down at where he was lightly drumming his fingers against the table. Royce noticed the librarian shooting him a dirty look. Royce was starting to get used to his little ticks—she didn't find them annoying at all. They were pretty cute.

"Okay, I'm about to give you my spiel—it's a one time only offer and once it's over I'm going to ban you from talking to me about Lydia in any kind of romantic way. Okay?"

Stiles lifted his eyes to her. He tried to keep any sign of the cocky smile off his face. He felt a little guilty about how much joy he got out of knowing that she was jealous. "Deal."

"Stiles, you know what I think of you."

Stiles raised his eyebrows and gave his head a little shake. He wanted to hear her say it.

She smacked his arm. "Stop. You know how much I like you. And in my personal opinion, Lydia is not good for you or right for you."

Stiles went immediately on the defensive. "I have to disagree."

"No you don't." She brushed off his interruption. "If I'm being completely honest with you, she seems like a shallow, self-serving person who knows exactly what buttons to press to make a person self-destruct and she takes pleasure in pressing them."

"Don't hold back," Stiles quipped.

"Oh, I won't because the worst thing about her is that it's obvious how intelligent she is, meaning she knows exactly what she's doing to people and she does it anyway. She pretends to be an idiot because she's too self-obsessed and cowardly to be herself." Royce stopped herself. She was getting more and more worked up as she spoke and needed to relax. She took a short breath and avoided eye contact.

"But despite all of that, I know that you have real feelings for her and that means that there must be something that I'm missing about her—some deep, redemptive quality that I don't see. Because the guy that I know wouldn't be in love with the girl that I just described.

Stiles could feel his cheeks heating up and he hoped that they weren't turning red. It didn't matter though. Royce wouldn't look at him as she got more and more uncomfortable. She just looked down at her hands.

"And if I'm right, which I usually am—that something deeper that you see will eventually surface and she's going to get rid of Jackson. If she's as smart as I assume she is, she will see you the same way that you see her."

Stiles rolled his eyes. "You don't really believe that."

She wanted him to know how sincere she was. She looked at his face and tapped his chin so that he looked back.

"I do mean it. And I can only hope that when she finally does, it will be too late. That you will have already moved on to someone who saw exactly how great you were from the jump." Stiles stared at her more and more intently as she said each word.

As soon as she was done with her sentence, she wanted to curl up under the table and hide. Instead she held his stare. At least she held it until she couldn't stand it anymore. She started gathering her books to leave when Stiles grabbed her hand.

"I'm confused," Stiles told her. "You say that you like me and you want me to get over her, but the other night you wouldn't let me kiss you."

Royce laughed. "I know. I'm sorry."

"I'm just getting mixed signals."

"I know, but I don't want to be the 'meantime' girl."

He quirked his head to the side like a dog trying to figure her out. He had a blank sort of look on his face that said he had no idea what she was talking about. "Come again?"

Royce immediately wished that she hadn't said anything as she geared up to explain. "That girl—that 'in the meantime' girl. The one who's guaranteed to get her heartbroken. You know what I mean?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. All I can think about it what a weird word meantime is. Where did it even come from?"

She snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Stiles focus!"

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you mean."

Royce rubbed the back of her neck. "Okay, um…let's say that there's this guy. We'll call him 'Steven'." She added air quotes to his name to make it clear she was actually talking about Stiles. "And Steven has this dream girl who he has obsessed over for years. Her name is…'Lisa'. Unfortunately, Lisa is in a bit of a selfish jerk phase when it comes to dating and isn't interested in Steven. So 'in the meantime' Steven preoccupies himself with another perfectly good and fun girl who is great, but she's not the dream—not the obsession. Let's call her Rrr…?"

"Rachel?" Stiles suggested. He was very intrigued.

"Sure. And so right about the time that Rachel pretty much falls all in for this guy—because of course she will because he's awesome—Lisa finally comes to her senses and steals him away. And he'll go because she is the dream and he has to know what it's like. So that leaves Rachel completely heartbroken and alone in the meantime."

There was a long pause as she finished her story.

Finally Stiles admitted, "Wow, you're right. That would suck."

"It really would and I refuse to ever be that girl."

Stiles scoffed at her. She was actually a little hurt by his reaction until she heard his next words. He placed his right hand over her left. "You're too strong to ever be that girl."

She actually smiled at him. She shifted her hand so that she could squeeze his fingers. "I always thought that I was, but I'm coming to realize that I'm actually not."

She shot him a little smile and leaned forward to press a lingering kiss to Stiles's cheek. "I'll talk to you later and we will never speak of this conversation again," she said, clearly embarrassed about how much she revealed about her feelings. She grabbed her things and left the library. Stiles watched her intently the entire time, trying to figure out if everything she said had changed how he felt.

He was beginning to think that it did.