Heroes & Sidekicks
"Sometimes sidekicks make the best heroes."
Author's Note: Hey all. Hope you're still enjoying this story. This chapter might make some of you hate me and some of you love me depending on who your favorite characters are. Either way let me know how you feel about what's happening! Please read and review! Thank you all!
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or any of its characters.
Chapter Eleven
Scott watched as Royce hightailed it out of his best friend's house. Sheriff Stilinski called after her to make sure she was okay, but they all let her go.
Scott was torn about what he should do next. He was having trouble deciding if he felt more sympathetic for Royce or happy for Stiles after seeing him finally get with Lydia.
Scott shot Stiles a half smile and Lydia a wave before deciding Royce needed him more right now.
Royce had taken off at a dead sprint into the woods. She must have made it several miles in before she finally stopped. She crumpled against a tree while trying to catch her breath. As her breathing started to calm, Scott practically skidded past her. When he caught sight of her, he slowed to a halt and crouched down in front of her.
"Are you okay? He asked, huffing slightly.
She closed her eyes and let out a long gasp of air. "I couldn't breathe in that room."
"Well, you got out of there fast enough. You have some wheels on you!" He grabbed at his side like he had a stitch, which actually made her laugh. Scott moved to sit next to her against the large trunk of the tree. He let the silence stretch out for a minute, knowing she needed to think, before he spoke again. "You know we still have to tell him about you." He nudged her shoulder with his own.
Royce shook her head lightly. "Not now. I don't trust her not to suck it out of him—Lydia and my secret I mean. And I can't trust her with my life. Not like I can trust the two of you."
Scott considered that and he could see where she was coming from. "I won't say anything. For now."
"I appreciate that," she said and let her head drop to his shoulder with a thunk.
"But you know Stiles. He will try to drag it out of me eventually and when that happens I'm sending him to you to come clean."
She laughed a little. "Don't push it."
"I won't, but I like you. I like how you treat Stiles. I like how happy he is when you two are together and he won't get over Lydia and get happy with you until he knows everything." Royce shrugged her shoulders a little. "I'm serious. I won't let him." Scott declared.
She nodded. "You know, you're surprisingly wise sometimes McCall." He laughed. "And he's lucky to have you as a best friend."
"I've always thought so," he joked and shifted so that his arm draped over her shoulders.
Scott and Royce sat in the woods for a long time while the night took hold. They didn't speak much, but Royce appreciated Scott being there for her.
Finally Royce lifted her head off his shoulder. She turned to him and pressed a kiss to his cheek before standing up.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"It's time," Royce answered, holding out a hand to help him up.
"Time for what?" he asked once he was on his feet.
"To start getting on Derek Hale's good side."
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"I'm going to seduce him," she said with a slight smile.
Scott recoiled a few steps away from her, looking like he wanted to puke. She laughed loudly at his expression and grabbed his wrist to drag him out of the woods behind her.
Scott walked right through the Stilinski's front door without bothering to knock. He had left Royce to her seductions with a promise that she would call him later. He really didn't want to think about what she was going to do. Once he separated from her, he had checked his phone to find ten texts from Stiles waiting for him. He figured it was safe to assume that Lydia had left. There were two more texts before Scott had arrived back at Stiles's house.
Scott found Stiles pacing back and forth in his room with his phone in hand. Scott watched for a minute before knocking lightly on the doorframe. The sound startled Stiles so much that his phone jumped out of his hand and dove toward the floor, but Stiles didn't care. He practically bowled Scott over trying to usher his friend into the room.
"Where the hell have you been? I've called and texted you like eighty times! Neither you or Royce have responded!" he blabbered excitedly.
Scott raised his eyebrows. "Were you acting like this when Lydia was still here? Because this, right here, might ruin all of the progress that you've made."
"What? No!" Stiles paused to calm himself down. "I very calmly told her that I should find you to see if you guys had come by for something important."
"You? Calmly?" Scott laughed skeptically.
"Dude, shut up! Not the point! Where is Royce?" He walked to his doorway and looked up and down the hall as though she might be hiding there. "Is she okay?" he asked, turning back to Scott.
"Yea, she'll be fine." Scott said the words, but wasn't sure if they were true so he blew by them quickly. "Congrats by the way, you finally got the dream girl, huh?"
Stiles actually smiled as Scott clapped him on the shoulder. He felt sort of proud for a second at attaining a goal he had set for himself in the third grade. That is until he remembered the look on Royce's face when she saw him with Lydia and all of those good feelings vanished. He sobered immediately. "Why were you guys here?" he asked almost sadly.
Scott shook his head and backed up a few steps. "There was something that Royce needed to tell you about." He avoided Stiles's eyes.
Stiles took a step toward his best friend. He was intrigued. "Why don't you tell me about it?"
Scott shook his head. "I can't. I promised her I'd let her talk to you. It's her secret to tell."
"Secret? Scott, come on! I'm your best friend."
"And if it was my life, you'd be the first to know about it, but it's not."
Stiles groaned and flopped down on his bed. "How am I supposed to get her to tell me if she won't answer her phone?" he whined.
Scott sat down in Stiles's desk chair and spun it around a few times. "Well, I'm guessing she turned off her phone so that she wouldn't get interrupted."
"Interrupted from doing what?"
Scott cleared his throat. "Getting some info."
"What kind of info?" Stiles was becoming more and more suspicious.
Scott shrugged and looked away.
Stiles narrowed his eyes. "Where is she exactly?"
Scott smiled a little, knowing the answer was about to cause panic.
"She's with Derek."
Stiles was completely baffled. "Why?"
Scott sighed and cringed slightly at the mental image of Royce and Derek. "She went to get on his good side so she uh…she's planning on hooking up with him."
Stiles leaned forward as if he didn't hear correctly. "Excuse me?"
Scott just shrugged.
Royce had made sure to change into her tightest jeans and most curve flattering tank top covered only slightly by her leather jacket which she thought Derek would appreciate.
She got to his classy abode, also known as the abandoned subway station, to find it surprisingly empty considering his pack of teens. She approached the subway car slowly and went inside, weaving down the aisle until she got to the end and doubled back to find Derek brooding at the entrance of the car.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in that deep voice that could cause shivers down your spine.
Royce smiled. "I came to talk to you."
Derek didn't smile back. "About?"
Royce had had enough questions from him in their last meeting. It was her turn. "Where's your posse?" she asked as she made a point of looking out the car windows for them.
"I sent them out," he answered curtly.
"I guess I should have called them your slaves, not posse." She couldn't help what came out of her mouth. He just seemed to bring out her antagonistic side. "Where'd you send them?"
"You don't need to know."
Royce approached Derek and saw him stiffen ever so slightly. She inwardly celebrated at that first sign that she might be affecting him. She stopped at the seat closest to the front and knelt facing Derek so that only the metal bar that acted as the armrest separated them.
"Okay, I'm here because I'd like us to be allies," she told him, putting herself forward at an angle that gave him a good view of her chest. She could see him trying not to look.
He struggled to stop his gaze from drifting between her eyes and chest. "I don't trust you."
Royce nodded. "I didn't ask you to trust me. I don't trust you either. And quite honestly, I'm not even sure I like you very much."
"Then how are supposed to be allies?"
"We help each other get what we both want."
Derek swallowed slightly. "There's nothing that I want that you could help me with."
Royce laughed and slowly slipped her arms out of her jacket, shimmying a little to get it off. "Is that right?"
She grabbed the bar in front of her and hoisted herself up to sit on it, swinging her legs around to the front. She was now close enough to Derek to touch him if she leaned forward. He had yet to move.
He clenched his jaw before saying, "Whatever you're trying to do isn't going to work.
She moved forward so that she was only a hairsbreadth away from his lips. "It already is working. Or are you forgetting that I can hear your heart jumping a little faster every time I get closer and I can smell the attraction coming off you in waves." She reached up and ran a hand down his arm. She felt him shiver slightly. It was exciting how much she affected him.
"I don't exactly hear your heart skipping a beat," he said, challenging her motives.
"You don't make me nervous. And you're making me wait before you get me excited apparently." Her hand ran back up his arm to rest of his shoulder and then back around to his neck.
"I told you. I don't trust you."
She scoffed. "You don't have to trust me to want me. That's kind of hot actually." He seemed to agree with that. "But if there's something else—or someone else—holding you back then I'm gone."
"There's no one else holding me back."
"So it's just you holding yourself back then? Because if that's the case then I'll take bets on my persistence over your resolve any day of the week." Royce punctuated the last four words by standing up slowly so that her lips were level with his neck. Once she was done talking, she decided to go big or go home. She traced her lips along his collarbone, skimming the collar of his shirt, and up to his neck where she gently grazed her teeth along his pulse point.
Derek moved so suddenly that he caught Royce off guard, allowing her heartbeat to catch up to his at a sprint. He grabbed her shoulders, held her at arms length and spun until she was pressed firmly against the wall of the subway car.
"I'd put my bet on you too," he confessed before grasping the back of her neck with one giant paw and pulling her face to his own.
His lips were soft, but he kissed her hard like he wanted to leave his mark—and he was doing a good job of it. She was surprised at the warmth of his touch and how hot it was making her. His hands were everywhere in the best way and though usually she would have tried to keep them at bay, she was actually really loving the flashes of hot electricity that were running in currents through every nerve ending in her skin. It was amazing.
A brief image of Stiles and Lydia kissing with the same amount of passion as she and Derek popped into her head and she broke the frantic kiss. She didn't say anything. She stared into Derek's questioning eyes as they both breathed heavily, trying to catch their breath. She could tell that Derek was disappointed that she stopped and she actually felt bad. Not just that, but she was disappointed that it had all stopped too. She smiled at him to reassure him and shook the image of Stiles out of her head. She lightly ran her fingers up his cheek and through his hair, pulling him to her at an achingly slow pace. She kissed him again, just as achingly slow and much more deeply than the frantic kiss from before. Somehow it was better. Sexier even. And when she wrapped her arms around him tighter so that she was flush against him, he elicited a deep groan—or was it a growl?—that vibrated through her body and had her thinking 'who needs Stiles?'.
