Happy New Year, everyone! Oh, and also, a very late Merry Christmas!
Or is it a super early Merry Christmas, now?
I'm so happy that all of you have stuck with me for so long and I couldn't ask for anything better!
So sorry I haven't been able to update in a while, but I have a bit of a longer chapter for you.
So here it is.
I don't own Teen Wolf or Avengers
Stiles felt his heart wanting to beat out of his chest and he decided then and there that he did not enjoy that feeling. Seriously. How the hell did he end up being led through the woods forcibly by werewolves and superheroes in order to explain his fucked up life's story? Yet here he was. Being led though the woods to the wolves' den by said wolves and mother fucking super heroes to explain his disappearing act last year and subsequent powers that thy all had no idea about. Yeah. This was going to be fun. Ugh. How was this his life? At the thought, Stiles let out an audible sigh which only earned him a look from Scott. Stiles only shook his head in response and continued walking in the direction that they led him in. As they continued walking, the surroundings got more and more familiar and the ache in Stiles' chest increased.
"So I'm really back, huh? This place has changed." Stiles muttered to himself, but Scott still heard it because werewolf powers or some bullshit and smiled slightly, nodding.
"Yeah. We finished fixing the place up and painted the outside. It's nice, huh?" Scott smiled proudly, a soft smile on his face. Stiles nodded, but didn't say anything. They really had moved on, hadn't they? Internally, Stiles had already known this, but he couldn't help the lance of pain that shot through his chest at the thought. Why did it hurt so much if he didn't care? Deciding to ignore the pain in his chest for now, he continued walking towards the house and ignored the looked he was getting from both the Pack and the heroes as they walked inside. Stiles could practically feel Derek's eyes burning into his back as the alpha practically herded them all into the Pack house. The inside was cozy and felt exactly what he had always imagined for the pack. Without meaning to, he felt himself relax as he sat down on the couch. When was the last time that he had let himself relax this much? His boned practically melted into the piece of furniture and his eyes fluttered shut in bliss.
"Has anyone ever told you that your couch is absolute, complete, fucking heaven? Cuz it is." Stiles slurred and the Pack only stared at him. Cracking an eye open, Stiles shot them a glare.
"Shut your faces. I can feel the judgement and it isn't appreciated. I've had a long and stressful day and I am thoroughly appreciating this couch." At the comments, the Pack suddenly smiled and chuckled. There was the Stiles they knew and loved. Maybe he hadn't changed as much as they though. Stiles and the heroes looked confused, but Stiles just shook his head and relaxed back onto the couch.
"Ok. Come and let's get this over with. Ask away and the sooner this is over, the sooner I'm out of your hair." Stiles said and settled into the couch, his amber eyes piercing into the wolves and they all felt a chill run down their spine. Maybe he had changed after all. At least in the fact that they could all feel the power flicker on the boy's skin. At the thought, the wolves whimpered internally. No. Stiles wouldn't go. Not if they had any say in it. The very thought of Stiles leaving after they just got him back made Derek's skin crawl. Sighing, knowing that the Pack probably wouldn't say anything and to primarily get all the introductions out of the way, the heroes started first.
"So how long have you known about all of…this?" Tony asked, gesturing to the wolves. Stiles sighed, but nodded. Might as well get all the introductions out of the way before the real questions began.
"Since my freshman year in high school." He said and looked at Scott, who looked slightly pained at the thought. Steve noticed at look and raised his eyebrow.
"What happened, if you don't mind my asking? I'm assuming that your friend here was involved?" he gestured to Scott. Chuckled softly, Stiles nodded.
"Yeah, well, let's just say that I was a very bored child, as you guys probably saw from my arrest records. Well, one night there was a call about a body in the woods and me, being who I am, decided to investigate and dragged Scott along with me. Scott was bitten by a werewolf and turned." Stiles shot an apologetic look at said boy and turned back to the heroes. The wolves settled into the many chairs in the living room to listen. It was interesting to hear things from the boy's perspective as they had never asked before. Maybe they would get some insight as to why he left in the first place?
"And the rest of the werewolves?" Thor asked. Stiles shrugged and jerked a thumb at the wolves.
"Ask them. If they want to tell you, they'll tell you. I'm here to ask question about me." Thor nodded in understanding and turned his gaze to the Pack. None of them spoke up until Derek growled out an answer.
"I was born a werewolf. My entire family were werewolves. I turned the others later on with their permission." The Pack nodded, unwilling to say anything about their personal situations and were grateful that Stiles didn't say anything, leaving it to them to say anything if they wanted to.
"OK, so what all kind of goes into being a werewolf? Do you guys have to howl at the full moon?" Tony asked and Stiles snorted.
"No. Only if they lose control. They don't all turn full wolf either, so don't ask." Stiles chuckled. Tony wanted to blush, but held it back. So what if that had been his next question?
"Ok, kid. So how were you all involved in this? I mean, as far as I can tell, you didn't have any powers when you were still here so why did you stay?" At this, Stiles winced and thought back to the past few years with the pack. Why did he stay?
"I don't really know." Stiles finally answered, staring out the window in thought. "At first, I stayed because I feel like I owed Scott because I was the one that got him into his situation in the first place. Afterwards…I don't know. I think I just wanted to help, but I'm not sure that my help was all that appreciated…" at that, the wolves didn't know what to say. Inside, they burned with their thoughts of denial.
No.
That was wrong.
They did need him.
Why did he think otherwise?
Why?
Tony felt the room thicken with the heavy silence and shot a pleading look at the other two heroes for anyone to try and break the silence.
"Uhh…so…what happened to the wolf that bit Mr. McCall?" Steve asked to try to change the subject. Stiles blinked the change of subject, but didn't try to go back to it.
"Oh, well, that's a whole new can of worms." Stiles scratched his head and the avengers raised their eyebrows. "Uhh…well, we found him a while after Scott was bitten and Derek slit his throat and I set him on fire cuz he was kind crazy ad planned to go on a murderous rampage." He said, and Steve blinked, but nodded. That made sense, especially if the wolf was planning to kill. A look of confusion crossed the teen's face before he turned to the wolves.
"Where is Peter anyway?" Tony choked, Steve looked alarmed, and Thor felt himself freeze slightly at the comment before looking at the wolves for their reactions. Surely this must be some sort of joke, right?
"He's on his way with Jackson, Lydia and Allison." Derek said quietly and Stiles nodded before turning back to the heroes.
"But wait, did you not say that the werewolf was dead?" Thor asked uneasily. Stiles nodded, a deadpan look on his face. He knew what the other was asking, but he was determined to play dumb right now. He had to get his entertainment somehow and the faces that the heroes were making were absolutely priceless.
"So why did you ask where he was?" Tony asked, almost afraid to know the answer to the question. It took everything Stiles had not to laugh at the looks on their faces. Especially Tony's. But maybe he just had something specific against the billionaire.
"Cuz I wanted to know where he was?" he asked and raised eyebrow in fake curiosity. The look of complete and utter confusion on Thor's face was what ended up breaking him and he laughed loudly, making everyone jump at the sudden burst of sound. Derek stared in shock at Stiles and he felt something twist in his gut. When was the last time that he had seen Stiles smile like that? Had he ever seen Stiles laugh like that?
"It's…It's complicated." He finally said after catching his breath. "He kinda ended up resurrecting himself with Lydia's (our resident banshee's) help and now he's a little less insane and helps occasionally when he decides not to be a total conniving asshole." He said really casually and burst into another round of giggles at the looks of disbelief and bewilderment on the men's faces.
"We're back! What's this I hear about our wayward pup returning to us?" a snarky voice called out from the front door and in came the werewolf they were talking about followed by Lydia, Jackson and Allison. At the sight of the human, the Pack members stilled their movements and their breaths caught in their throats. Peter, even though he usually acted as if he didn't care, had missed the human and was heartbroken when they couldn't find him. Hearing that there may have been a chance at finding him had raised his hopes a little, but he didn't want to raise his expectations too high in case they found nothing.
"Stiles? Is that really you?" Lydia was the first to ask and stepped forward. Hesitantly, Stiles nodded.
"Yeah, Lyds, it's me. Surprise! I'm not dead!" he said before falling over because of a furious pillow to the head.
"You absolute and utter moron! I thought you were dead! You made me cry! Lydia Martin does not do grief or running mascara!" she kept throwing pillows at the amber-eyed boy that was now just defending himself from the pillows as best as he could from the angry banshee. Finally, she ran out of pillows and was stopped from grabbing other objects to throw by Jackson, who was still slightly dumbfounded. Peter felt am immense relief sweep through him as he saw that yes, the boy in front of them was real and not just a wishful thought. Just as Stiles got back on his feet, Allison gasped and ran to him, hugging him tightly, her eyes watering over.
"Woah there, Ali. I just got assaulted by pillows. I don't need you to make me fall over again." Stiles said gently, holding the sobbing girl that was clinging to him as if he might disappear at any moment.
"W-we th-thought you were dead!" she cried, which made Stiles feel bad. He had basically made the equivalent of a Disney princess cry. A Disney princess that could take him out with an arrow from a hundred meters away with little effort, but a Disney princess none the less.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, Allison. But I'm fine, see? Totally not dead, amiright?" Stiles gestured down at himself in all his flailing glory which managed to get a small laugh out of her. She let go after a minute and went to Scott's side. No big surprise there. He nuzzled into her hair and wrapped an arm around her waist, whining happily at her return. Stiles gagged at the sight and it seemed that the rest of the Pack shared his sentiments.
"Yeah. I definitely didn't miss that. At all." He commented, making retching noises and motions, making the pack giggle.
"Ok, Stiles, cut it out. I'm sure that they want to have their answers before the day's out." Derek suddenly rumbled from the back, startling Stiles slightly. Stiles blinked in surprise and glanced at the wolves. He had honestly forgotten all about them and he looked at them warily for a second before turning back to the heroes. Derek was probably right. He should continue with the whole explaining thing. Settling back into the couch, wow the couch was still amazing, and continued.
"Yeah. Anyway, if you guys don't have any more questions, here's kinda what happened while I was here." The heroes nodded before starting from where he was involved and going over all the main highlights of his years spent with the werewolves. Finally, he finished his explanation and fell silent to let the heroes process all that they had heard. The wolves stayed quiet, mulling over the thoughts from the amber eyed teen in front of them. It was interesting to hear the events from the human teen's point of view and some things they had never even heard of. But they supposed they wouldn't have since they had never asked.
"Alright. You definitely win the award for weirdest high school years." Tony commented and Stiles chuckled and nodded.
"I'll be waiting for that award." The teen smirked and the billionaire rolled his eyes.
"I agree that your years have been very eventful." Thor nodded. "Yet after all your years faithfully being by your friend's side, why did you end up leaving?" at that, the smirk froze on the teen boy's face and seemed so forced that it was painful. The wolves felt themselves tense as the air around Stiles shifted to something darker.
"That…that's harder to talk about." The smile finally slipped off his face as he stared down at the ground. "I…well…" He sighed and trembled slightly. Steve went to go and comfort the boy, but Stiles brushed him off.
"I'll be fine. I just…I need a little bit." He sighed and took a deep breath before starting. "I was walking to my jeep from the Pack house, here, and I think I got hit on the head. I…I woke up in a glass cage…" Stiles wrapped his arms around himself as he lost himself in memories. "It was pitch black and cold. Then someone came in. Mr. Darien, he said was his name. He and his group believed heavily in magic and wanted to fully awaken my Spark. By any means necessary. They thought that with my power, they would be able to achieve their goals and I don't think that they were for good." The words sent a shiver down the other's backs as they heard that. The wolves growled as they heard about the man. But all of them, no matter if they were in the supernatural world or not, they all didn't like the sound of where this was going.
"I tried to resist, but there were a lot of them, so there wasn't really anything I could do but wait the pack to come for me." Stiles shuddered and gripped his arms tighter. "They tortured me for days on end and only stopped when I was at the point of passing out. They fed me when they remembered to and it was always dark and cold. I was always too tired to even try to break the glass, it was just so exhausting. On the last day…I finally just snapped." Stiles breathed shakily.
"Stiles?" Scott asked softly, but Stiles kept going as if he had never spoken, his voice hollow and his eyes empty.
"I just…" he sighed "They made me realize that you hadn't even realized I was gone. I was there, hoping that someone, anyone, would come and save me, but they didn't. And they wouldn't. And I just… I snapped. My power finally just exploded from me and I brought the whole warehouse down around me. I know…I killed everyone in the process, but I didn't care at the moment. It came down and I left." He said quietly and curled in on himself. The rest were frozen in shock at the tale.
'He said that his powers were "awakened" and that it wasn't pleasant. This must have been what he was talking about.' Tony thought. So, in a way, it was experimentation, but the latent magic was already in the boy. Thor growling inside his head. This was only a boy! How dare other put him through all of that for their own selfish gains! If they were not already gone, he knew that he and the others would have gone out to pursue them and make them pay. Steve was also thinking along the same lines as the other two, but with an added feeling of helplessness. It was already too late to help, but he wanted to try and make it better somehow. With the wolves, there was a mixture of emotions all ranging from hurt to fury. The pack whimpered at the thought of the torture that Stiles had gone through and where had they been when he needed them? They had forgotten about him in favor of their own things. They had abandoned him. Derek was seething at the thought that a pack member had been hurt in such a way. And not just any pack member. Stiles. Their human. He was the most vulnerable to outside forces and yet was always the first to run headlong into danger. He was the one that needed the most protection and they had forgotten him and left him to suffer alone.
"Any other questions?" Stiles finally asked after a long stretch of silence. Shakily Steve went to break the tension.
"Wh-where did you go after you left here?" to the others' relief, the teen seemed to relax at the subject change and smiled slightly.
"Well, I didn't real have any idea in mind so I just kinda went west and stuck to more wooded area. For a while, my powers were kinda out of control and fluxuating all over the place. I didn't know how to rein anything in and my flare outs attracted my fair share of supernaturals. I think somewhere in the desert in Nevada there's a good patch of dirt that is now glass going down a few feet." Stiles shrugged. "Anyway, after about a week or two, I had enough control to interact with others and I ran into a really cool nomadic coven of witches that I traveled with for a while till we ended up in Tennessee where I found a pack of shape shifters. That was pretty cool and I didn't even know that they existed until now. They gave me an updated version of our bestiary which was equal parts terrifying and awesome and
I'm pretty sure I had nightmares about some of the entries." He smiled and Steve opened his mouth to ask, but Tony only placed a hand on his elbow to stop him, shaking his head.
"Was that how you learned to control your magic?" Jackson asked, surprising everyone since he hadn't said anything since he had showed up. Startled, Stiles stared for a second before continuing.
"Uhh, kinda. I learned a bit from them and other people that showed up. I traveled with them all the way up to Salem and from there, I decided to walk up to Alaska and see what I could find." Stiles seemed lost in his story and let a fond sort of smile slip out.
"I was around Rhode Island when I ran into him. At first, I thought he was just a homeless guy that had kinda lost his mind cuz he was just staring off into space. You run into those types all the time while traveling, so I didn't really think much of it. That was, until shit started moving and suddenly ghosts appeared." The abrupt change of pace startled the listeners. What? Did he just say ghosts?
"Yeah. I was so shocked, that it took me a minute to go and help, but by then, he had already defeated them so we introduced ourselves. As it turned out, the guy was a shaman named Eric. He was there because of some residual hauntings that needed to be sorted out." Stiles chuckled and looked at his listeners. The Pack looked stunned, but it was not strong as this was within their world of possibility. On the other hand, Tony looked about ready to give up, Steve looked too stunned for words, and Thor was bouncing in his seat excitedly at the story.
"And what happened after that, young stiles? I did not know that there were Shamans in your realm. I wonder of they are the same as in mine?" Thor asked.
"Well, shamans are getting kind of rare now that there isn't as much nature in the world to communicate with and more and more people kinda tune everything outside of them out. It was luck that I even met Eric at all." The teen shrugged. "As for how they differ from Asgardian Shamans, I don't really know. I'd have to see one to get a base line. Anyway, he knew a lot about a lot and was on his way to Alaska anyway, so we ended up traveling together for a long while." Stiles smiled happily, fond of the memory. For some reason, the idea of some stranger being around didn't sit very easy with the Pack, but they let it go. Derek, on the other hand, felt his hackles rise every time this "Eric" was mentioned. It was reckless of Stiles to go and trust a stranger like that! What if he was lying about what he was and ended up killing him in his sleep! Derek's wolf growled from inside him and seemed to protest loudly at the very thought of ERIC.
"And it was he that showed you how to control your power?" Peter asked, drawing closer as the boy talked more. He was intrigued at the story and wanted to know more. Knowledge was precious, after all.
"Yeah. He's the one that figured out that the main cause of my hyperactive mind was the magic that I had. It had no way of releasing itself, so it was constantly just kind of buzzing in me, leaving my brain to try and sift through it all. Now that I can release it properly, my mind is quieter and I can focus on things a whole lot better." The Pack nodded, impressed as they thought back to all the times that Stiles seemed to not be able to control himself because of his ADHD.
"I occasionally have slip ups," he glanced over at the Avengers "But they're getting farther and fewer between. I mean, I'm still a teenager so hormones and emotions are not exactly gonna be my forte for a while, but I'll get better the more I practice." The teen smiled, seemingly confident about his words and the others couldn't find it in themselves to doubt him, the Avengers especially. Chuckling, Stiles drifted into thought.
"I think that was around the time that we were staying with that wolf pack…" at this, the Pack snapped to attention. Pack? How had they not smelled another pack on Stiles? Smells lingered for a long while afterwards, especially with wolf packs. Derek's eyes quickly flashed red at the thought of another pack scent marking Stiles, but before he could get up and say anything, Tony interrupted.
"Ohh. Is that why we found you way out in Alaska with a bunch of wolves?" he asked and Stiles nodded.
"Yupp. At around the time that I was practicing calling out to animal spirits, we ended up finding a nearby wolf pack that had just one of their elders passed. Her spirit came to me and they found me. We became pretty fast friends after they found out that I could communicate with them. And especially when I ran off that trapper that was out to get them." Stiles smiled proudly. The Pack deflated almost visibly in relief. A wolf pack. Not a werewolf pack. No other pack had their scent on the teen. Tony noticed the relief on the pack's (Derek's) faces, and raised his eyebrow. Maybe he could stir the pot a bit? After all, they had been the ones to forget about the kid.
"So, did you meet any other werewolf packs while you were traveling?" At this, the werewolves tensed, and Tony could only smirk as he felt Derek's glare try and bore holes through his skull. At the question, Stiles' eyes light up and he proceeded to explain about the different packs that he had seen, but never actually talked to. Tony laughed internally at the uncomfortable looks on the Pack's faces and Steve finally sighed at his friend's antics, interrupting Stiles mid rant about the Pack he had come across in New Mexico.
"Ok, Stiles. Thank you for telling us about everything. I know that must have been hard for you," Understatement of the century. "And I hate to bring it back to serious topics here," he really, really did "But we still have one thing that we need to deal with that you said that you would deal with." At this Stiles stopped talking and his face set into a frown.
"What?" Steve sighed.
"Your father."
*^End^*
So there it is.
Sorry if it's no good, but I did the best I could.
Anyway, read, review, and stay true!
Till next chapter.
