Butting Heads

Most days Scott and Stiles were inseparable. They could almost be mistaken as the same person to those who didn't know them well, like the teachers who thought of them as one unit. However, there were those dark days when they couldn't stand in the same room. It was a day like that that lead to their current predicament. The two boys sat only three feet from each other in the main office outside of the principal's office, trying so hard not to look at one another. The tension could be felt by everyone, it even made the poor secretary uncomfortable enough to leave for her "afternoon coffee break."

The two were radiating with unjustifiable anger, both too stubborn to end this ridiculous daily feud that lead to their getting into trouble. Most of the time sitting in the principal's office was tough but okay because they were there together, partners in crime who couldn't stop looking over at each other maybe even laughing at each other occasionally. But today they just kept their eyes far from the other's face, staring at the walls as if they were five year olds in time-out.

Finally their parents came out of the office, both looking a little concerned and confused and the principal just looking a little lost. None of them knew how to punish the boys. The worst punishment was to keep them away from each other but today they seemed as though they might like that and that fact was painful to everyone. "Stiles, Scott, you can go home for the rest of the day."

Stiles spun in his chair to face the principal who had broken the tense silence. "What? You're sending me home? It wasn't even my fault! I know what chemicals can and can't be mixed together. It's not my fault Mr. Harris gave me a terrible lab partner." He shot a quick glare to Scott.

"Oh, so it's my fault?" Scott's voice seemed to have a little less bite but plenty of anger and hurt in it. "If I'm so dumb then maybe you should have been paying more attention instead of…"

"Boys." The sheriff spoke up, rubbing his forefinger and thumb into his closed eyes. "Stop acting like children." He looked over at Melissa who sighed. "Alright, Stiles, come on I'll drop you off at home before I go back to work." He nodded towards the door before walking out of the office.

The lanky teen stood up angrily and grabbed his backpack a little clumsily before stalking out after his father. Scott watched with an as angry a scowl as he could muster but the look dropped as soon as the other boy left the room and then he turned to his mom. "Can we just go home and not talk about this?" He didn't want to confess to his mom that this was one of the most stupid fights he'd ever had and was probably mostly at fault. He knew she would knock him and Stiles upside the head.

Melissa smiled sweetly before putting a hand on her son's shoulder after he stood up. "Oh Scott, you should know me better by now. I have to go into work in two hours. You have that much time to explain to me what could possibly have happen between you and your best friend to cause a minor explosion in the chemistry room." She gave her son a quick squeeze before leading him to the car.

As Melissa's interrogation began, Scott sank into the seat of the car, hoping to just disappear.

A few blocks away Stiles was doing the same thing. "Dad, I told you I don't want to talk about it." Stiles said for the third time. He had never felt like the drive between the school and his house had ever been this long before. "Just let it go, please."

"No, Scott is your best friend. You two hardly ever fight. I can barely think of the last time you two fought. Usually when you do fight it's over quickly and over something stupid. But this time you caused damage to public property. And you can bet that chemistry teacher is going to have a pretty low opinion of you from now on." The sheriff shook his head. "Just tell me what it is Stiles, maybe I can help."

A little bit of aggression and frustration was still in Stiles system from earlier. "Oh really?" The words started pouring from his mouth before he could stop them. "You could help me? Like you used to help me with homework as a kid? No, that was one of your deputies. Or maybe how you said you would help me with cleaning the garage last weekend? Oh no, I did that alone because you had to work overtime again." Stiles wanted to take it back as soon as he said it but hey, teenage angst.

The sheriff was shocked to silence. This wasn't like Stiles. Stiles didn't bite off his dad's head for work. The kid always respected what he did. And ever since his mom died, Stiles understood that the sheriff had to work more. It was like the sheriff had lucked out on the attitude thing. But now it was coming back to bite him in the ass. "Stiles…"

"Never mind, just forget it Dad. I'm sorry I said anything. I'm just tired, okay?" Stiles jumped out of the car as soon as it came to a stop and ran into the house, trying to force himself out of the terrible mood he'd been put into.

After a lengthy talk with his mom Scott sat in his room, lying on his bed throwing a ball up into the air trying to think of a way to fix this mistake but coming up with nothing. Instead, Scott looked over at all of the school work he had yet to complete and started working. And for the first time in Scott's life, he worked all afternoon on his homework, getting completely caught up with his classes, and fell asleep on his floor over a textbook, his mind far from the incident with Stiles.

Three days…three days the two boys didn't talk to each other. Both had taken up weird habits in replace of their best friend, their extra shadow. Stiles had started researching the weirdest things just to occupy his time, such as how to drive a manual transmission, circumcision, and even a few random things involving the supernatural…don't judge, it was like a snowball effect on Google, even he wasn't sure how it happened. Then there was Scott who was actually keeping up with school for once, working out more, and even considering more sports. On the second day of silence he went to the store and bought a baseball bat. He never really liked the sport but it was something to do and if it didn't work out then he could also use it as home-defense (as his skeptical mother told him). But not a word was exchanged between the two, just stolen glances when one thought the other wasn't looking.

So what caused this silence? Not even the boys knew. But there is a truth in the thought that we take out our frustrations on the ones we love most, the ones who know and trust most, the ones we know will always forgive us no matter what. And this is what Stiles and Scott were doing to each other. The stress and frustration of life had engulfed them fully and started to choke them. You see, Scott was beginning to understand the stress of having a job, school, and sports (because this high school coach demanded the lacrosse players, even the potential players and freshman, be on the cross country team at the start of the year) all at the same time. And Scott had never been one talented with time management. And Stiles was worrying more than ever about his dad (there had been more threats against his life since the car accident), had managed to piss off enough of the teachers already at school, and couldn't stop thinking about his mom missing out on all of the high school firsts. It wasn't fair.

Both needed to de-stress. Both were on edge. And both had had an argument with their parents the morning of the explosion (Stiles and sheriff argued about yet another detention for behavioral issues while Scott and Melissa argued about a failed test she had to sign for Scott). By the time chemistry came around, they were tightly wound. A snide comment from Jackson, an impossible lab, a bump of the elbow, some spilled chemicals, and BOOM! An explosion ripped through the classroom and the boys were instantly yelling at each other as soon as the smoke settled. Teenage hormones…

Now the two weren't sure how to make it better. Neither knew what to apologize for. This was so unlike any of their other fights. They never fought over nothing, at least nothing that couldn't be solved by a pizza and a few video games…

And that's why Stiles found himself standing in front of Scott's door with a pizza and video game in his hands, praying this would work because he couldn't stand not having his friend. The door opened before he could even knock with Scott almost running out the door with a video game and money in his hand. "Oh, Stiles, I was just about to go pick up some pizza and go to your house." Scott said after the two had collided and landed awkwardly on the ground with pizza covering them. The two just sat there looking at each other for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter and detangling from each other. They pulled each other up and went to get the second pizza together.

After getting the pizza the two sat in Scott's room and started playing video games. As they played Stiles couldn't help but notice the new addition to his friend's room. "Dude, why do you have a baseball bat? You're not going to make us join another sport are you? Cross country and lacrosse are enough for me, thanks."

Scott laughed. "Home defense man."

"Yeah whatever." Stiles shook his head. "You're not the one with regular patrols coming to their house." He didn't mean to say it so seriously, but it just came out. It was a concern he had been holding in for a while.

And as if they hadn't had any time off their friendship Scott nudged his friend's shoulder with his own, sensing Stiles' genuine worry. "Don't worry, man, your dad will catch the guy. Everything is going to be okay."

Stiles nodded, sure his friend was right but it was nice to finally hear out loud from someone else. "So what's been going on with you?" And like that the two finally talked like they should have days ago as they fought zombies in their game and made plenty of fake bloodshed.

When Melissa came home she heard two laughing voices coming from her son's room. She went upstairs to see two empty pizza boxes made into little huts and the boys pushing each other as they played some game. "So you two made up?"

"We were fighting?" Scott asked, not taking his eyes off the TV screen.

"Yeah, remember, for like three days." Stiles nudged Scott as he tried to get some advantage in the game.

Melissa let her jaw drop. "And the chemistry incident?"

"Totally Jackson's fault." Stiles said simply, letting his tongue hang out of his mouth as he moved his controller around more than needed.

The nurse shook her head. "Whatever, at least you're talking again." She sighed before walking off, coming to terms with the knowledge that she would never understand those two.

The boys looked over at each other and laughed. "So, how are we going to get Jackson back?"

With all the skill of a regular criminal, Stiles switched out the beakers without anyone's notice well except for Scott who was watching with anticipation. "Are you sure this will work?" Scott asked his best friend as soon as Stiles sat back down.

Stiles nodded. "Yeah I'm sure." He noted the doubtful look from Scott. "I double checked by looking over Lydia's shoulder at her notes. I totally got this right, I'm a genius chemist. And this teacher wants to fail me." Stiles scoffed at the absurdity. "Jackson won't see it coming."

"Won't see what coming?" The horrible chemistry teacher asked, leaning between the two friends' heads, just before a slight explosion came from two tables up and Jackson began a trail of cuss words trying to wipe himself off in a worry that whatever got all over him might be dangerous. He was even about to run over to the chemical shower in a completely embarrassing panic when the teacher stopped him. "Stilinski, McCall, to the office." He began to follow the boys out to the hallway. "I'm glad the two of you worked out whatever issue was going on between you but just because you stopped taking out your teenage emotional melt downs on each other doesn't mean you can take it out collectively on students in my class." Then he shut his door to deal with Jackson who was freaking out and swearing revenge.

Stiles shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever." The two made the trudge to the principal's office, this time sending each other secret humorous smiles instead of avoiding eye contact. Things had balanced out once again. Even if they had yet to solve any of their problems the two had each other and that's all that really mattered.

/I am so sincerely sorry for the long wait! Life has been really busy since coming back to school. Between the time crunch and other stories I'm writing I've kind of hit a wall with this story. It was a struggle to write even this, so if you guys have any ideas for stories please let me know and I'll try to write something fairly soonish. The updates for this story will probably so down, because of school and this bit of writers block, but it won't stop I promise. Anyways, I hope you guys liked the new addition, it was a combination of a few requests I hope that's okay. Thanks for reading, please review (it keeps me motivated), and have a great day!