Hey everybody! Go check out the beta'd version on AO3 by GoreLover (me) and hayley757! Enjoy!
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It was a sunny Friday evening, the pack all sitting around the loft, talking about the pixies (yes, pixies) which had been terrorizing the pack for about the same amount of time that Stiles had been acting strange, which was about a week ago.
Derek frowned, thinking about the week prior to this one. Stiles hadn't shown up to the loft for a few days, and apparently he wasn't at school either. Scott had gone to his house a few times and the sheriff had said Stiles was sick with the flu, though Scott had said he couldn't smell any illness at all from the house. Then, when Stiles finally went back to school, and everyone texted Derek saying Stiles was fine, but that he clearly just wasn't recovered from the flu, Derek had relaxed slightly, but the moment of ease was quickly replaced with a tight feeling in his gut when he saw Stiles himself.
He had bags under his eyes, his usual pale skin looking translucent in the sunlight shining through the curtains of the loft, not to mention the smell of pain and peroxide wafting through the air, coming from his body.
"Hey Stiles," Derek greeted and Stiles looked at him nervously, flinching when Derek sat down next to him, as if it was back when they first met and Stiles expected Derek to slam him into the wall and threaten to tear his throat out. But the thing was, they were past that, so of course this made Derek more concerned.
"Hi." He replied, smiling slightly, fakely, as Derek shifted on the cushion next to him, he went to speak, but Stiles put a hand up to stop him. "Before you ask why I look like shit, as Scott so eloquently put it, I had the flu." Stiles said, and Scott put on a goofy grin and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Like I said, no offence." Scott grabbed the remote to the T.V. and began to watch a show as the rest of the pack filtered in from outside, just getting there from
Since then, he barely ate, the dark bags under his eyes were ever present, and he had this hollowness in his expression that just couldn't be explained. Not unless he wanted to talk about whatever was bothering him, that is. And of course, he didn't. Whatever it was that was bothering him was clearly something big, or he wouldn't be so out of it all the time.
What really scared Derek was the fact that Stiles had been so eerily quiet about the whole thing. He was usually so open about his emotions, but not this. This... ugly mess. Whatever it was.
"What I don't understand," Scott said, glancing around the room, "Is why they speak a foreign language when they are from here?" And the whole room, minus Stiles, who wasn't paying attention, rolled their eyes.
"That's what you're stuck on?" Lydia asked, and Scott glared.
"What? It's a valid question! Right, Stiles?" He questioned, nudging Stiles, who flinched from the contact.
"W-what?" He looked at Scott, who simply frowned at him. This was an on-going thing. Stiles was constantly flinching from the contact that Scott, or anyone else for that matter, gave him. It was odd, and it made Scott worry to no end.
"I said my question was valid, am I right?" Scott grinned, winking at him.
"Yeah…." Stiles said, then went back to staring at the same spot on the floor. Scott stared at him for a second before he sighed, turning back to the group.
"Okay, well, it is a valid question." He pouted, watching Lydia raise a perfectly pencilled eyebrow at the exchange.
"Sure. Moving on," She said, "I think I know enough Latin to talk to them. You know, try to get them to leave peacefully." She felt Jackson tense beside her. "Oh, what?" She asked, and Jackson furrowed his eyebrows.
"No way are you going out there by yourself to talk to those little bastards." He said, and Lydia smiled gently at him.
"I never said I'd go alone." She patted his knee and Jackson looked a little better than before, but still doubtful.
"Okay, so there's one plan." Allison said from the other side of Scott.
"Do we really think these… pixies… are going to leave peacefully? I mean, we all saw how vicious they were the other day. What if they just attack us again?" Isaac expressed, looking to Lydia, who was curling her hair around her finger.
"It's a good point," she said, "But after doing some research, I've come to realize that most pixies are peaceful creatures." Lydia dropped her hand to her side.
"Peaceful? They're one of the most mischievous supernatural creatures out there! And have you forgotten our little exchange with them the other day?" Erica all but shouted, causing Boyd to nearly choke on the water he was sipping.
"Well, yes, it's true that they are mischievous, but what I meant was when it comes to other supernaturals, settling fights, stuff like that, they're fairly peaceful." Lydia said as Erica continued to frown in her direction, but kept silent nonetheless.
"Stiles, do you have any information to add? You said you were going to do research." Derek loudly spoke, trying to get his attention as the whole room turned to Stiles, who was still staring at the floor. "Stiles?" Derek said again, though there was still no response from the younger boy. The whole room was staring at him, concern clear on their faces. Scott put a hand in front of his face and waved it, and Stiles looked up at him with a confused and slightly dazed expression on his face.
"What?" He questioned, and Scott searched Stiles' face for answers he wouldn't find.
"Derek asked if you found anything else on the pixies?" Scott hesitated, and Stiles nodded slowly, turning towards his bag which sat atop the couch's arm, pulling out a stack of papers from it.
"This is everything I could find." Stiles got up and handed the paper to Derek, and none of the wolves missed the small, but sharp intake of pained breath when he sat back down. If anyone wanted to say anything, they held it in. Though Derek was very nearly at the point of just asking anyway, because yes, he cared a lot about Stiles, whether or not he let it show.
See, the thing was, Derek knew Stiles was his mate, but he had yet to tell anyone. He knew the wolves must have been able to smell his arousal if Stiles got too close, hear the uptick of his heart when Stiles smiled at him, they must have seen the way Derek stared at his beautiful, mole-speckled face.… Derek sighed, wishing Stiles felt the same way about him… but that would never happen, and he's not even going to mention the fact that Stiles was sixteen and Derek was twenty-four.
"Okay, well, thanks." Derek said and Stiles flashed his new smile, the one that never reached his eyes.
"Yeah, everything's there, from dancing in the moonlight to the sounds of crickets and frogs, to luring travelers away from their path." Stiles said, "Though, I mean, now that it's the twenty-first century I'm sure that there can't be too many people just walking around in the forest. Especially here, what with all the murders and the other stuff that happens in this town, you know, the amount of people who go missing… also, why even do something so pointless? Like, I get that they're supposed to be mischievous and all that, but it's a bit evil to do something like that just for the hell of it, isn't it?"
"I'm glad to see you can still ramble like an idiot." Derek smiled fondly, causing Stiles to frown at him.
"What do you mean?" Stiles asked and it was Derek's turn to frown.
"Well, you've just been so down lately…" Derek then cleared his throat. "I mean, it's not like I really care or anything, but we've all noticed." Derek said, not caring that the wolves could hear the lie in his heartbeat.
Just as the wolves heard Stiles' heart speed up, Stiles shot a glare at Derek before angrily grabbing his bag and walking out. No one knew the truth was that it wasn't because he was mad, he was just trying to get out of discussing what was wrong (not that he wasn't upset, because yeah, coming from his crush, that hurt).
"Nice." Scott growled, getting up to go after Stiles.
Derek closed his eyes and sat back in the chair. God, he was an idiot. He hadn't meant to hurt Stiles' feelings, he just didn't want to make Stiles think he cared, maybe too much, about him.
"What was that about?" Lydia asked. "We all know you care deeply about him." She said, and Derek glared at her, Lydia glared right back, unafraid.
"I don't care-" Derek started, before Boyd put a hand on his shoulder from beside him.
"Cut the crap, Derek." Boyd interrupted. "We know."
Derek looked over to him, sighed and flipped through the papers in his hand.
"Let's just talk about something else, okay?" He landed on a page which had a pixie munching on the flesh of a dead human being, and thought he must look at that specific page later.
"Woah, you know, you make it sound like you like him romantically or something… do you?" Allison said, and Derek stared at the papers with his eyebrows furrowed, refusing to answer. "Oh my God! You do!" She practically squealed, as un-Allison-like as possible.
"Can we please move on?" Derek glowered while the whole pack smirked at him.
"Just be happy Scott is as oblivious as he is, we all know he can't keep his mouth shut." Peter rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, especially when it comes to Stiles." Allison added, fiddling with her shirt sleeve as everyone looked at her and her near jealousy in disbelief.
"Yeah, well, Scott can't do or say ANYTHING without it revolving around you." Isaac said, and mostly everyone nodded at that.
Allison was about to respond when the door to the loft burst open, revealing a depressed looking Scott.
"He called me a furry bastard." Scott whined, taking his seat beside his girlfriend once again.
"Why? It's not like you did anything." Isaac said disbelievingly, and Scott looked over at him.
"I don't know! He just told me to leave him alone, and that he wanted nothing to do with me!" Scott smiled a bit, "but his heartbeat said otherwise." He then turned to Derek, "what's your issue by the way? Why did you lie and say you didn't care about Stiles? Why do you have to be such a jerk to him all the time? He's pack, he should know you care." Scott said and Peter smirked.
"Stiles shouldn't take it personally, Derek's a jerk to everyone." He said, and Derek growled in his direction. " Oh come on, it's true!"
Derek sighed, not finding the energy to stay angry, and began to thumb through the papers in his lap.
"Let's just think of what to do with these pixies, alright?" He said, beginning to read.
"I thought we agreed I would talk to them." Lydia said, tapping her foot on the hardwood floor beneath her feet.
"Yeah, I guess that's one way to go about it, but we need a plan b, If that doesn't work. Especially with how vicious they were the other day."
"Because you didn't even try to talk to them! You just flashed your alpha eyes and made them angry!" Lydia shouted, causing the whole pack to look at her with shocked expressions on their faces. Where had this anger come from?
"Okay… well, what do you suggest we do?" Scott asked, and Lydia was silent for a moment before speaking once again,
"I think we should just try talking to them." She voiced, then sighed at Derek's scowl. "What? What else can we do? Get a flamethrower or something?" Lydia mocked and Scott's eyes lit up at the comment.
"That's a great idea!" Scott said, already thinking of the awesome destruction it could cause.
"I was joking, Scott, God." She rolled her eyes while Scott deflated like a balloon.
"Well, it is a good idea." He pouted and Lydia flipped her hair, looking across the room at the boy.
"Where?" Lydia questioned, and a confused expression crossed Scott's face.
"Where what?" He asked.
"Where would we get a flamethrower, Scott?" She glared, "how thick can you get?"
"Hey! That's not fair!" Scott whined, as Allison took his hand in her own. "You don't think I'm stupid, do you Ally?" Scott asked.
"Of course not." Allison assured him, then glared across the room at Lydia, who shrugged her shoulders.
"Okay… well, I guess we'll try talking to them, then." Derek said in a monotone voice, still thinking about Stiles, how his heart beat had sped up ever so slightly. What was he hiding?
"Okay, so that's settled then…" Isaac went to get up to go to his room, but Erica pulled him back down. "What?" He asked, staring into Erica's deep brown eyes.
"There's something else we need to talk about." She said, glowering at the whole pack.
"Get on with it, then." Peter said unapologetically.
"It's about Stiles." She twisted her hair around in her hands as she waited on a response.
Ah yes, the one thing plaguing everyone's minds… Stiles.
"Yeah, he's been acting kinda strange lately, hasn't he?" Scott said, and Erica glared at him.
"Are you kidding? 'Kinda'? Really?" She rolled her eyes. "Scott, If you haven't noticed how off your BEST FRIEND is, I don't think you should even deserve that title." She said and Scott winced.
"I have noticed." He clarified, " I just didn't want to make it seem like a bigger deal than what it is."
"Well, it's a big deal." Boyd said and Scott looked at him disbelievingly.
"Listen, I know you and Erica are like, madly in love, but you don't have to take her side on everything." Scott lolled his head back onto the couch.
"Believe it or not, McCall, but I care about him too." Boyd growled as the room tensed.
"Yeah, well, he's MY best friend, not yours, Boyd." Scott growled back.
"Ladies, ladies, you're both ugly," Jackson joked, then took on a more serious appearance, "so, what do we think is wrong with the nerd?" He put his hands together and rested his chin atop of them, looking around the room expectantly.
"Well, for one, he always smells like disinfectant, and it's kind of gross." Isaac said.
"Like what kind of disinfectant?" Lydia inquired.
"Peroxide, maybe? I'm not sure, does… does anyone else know?" Isaac questioned the pack.
"It's definitely peroxide." Peter confirmed while Lydia thought silently.
It took a moment, but she finally explained, "it could be used for different things, such as cleaning cuts, burns and or scrapes, or it could be used as a type of mouthwash for things like infected gums or even gingivitis."
"Okay… he does get hurt a lot? Maybe he's been cleaning a wound or a few, especially after what happened with the pixies." Allison frowned, thinking.
"Okay, well, that explains that I guess." Lydia said, and though Derek wanted to point out that he had smelt like that before the pixies attacked, he didn't even think they should be having this conversation behind Stiles' back (regardless of whether or not he thought it was important), so he decided to keep his mouth shut.
"No, he smelt like that before then." Erica said thoughtfully, and Derek nearly face-palmed right on the spot.
"Well, maybe he's got a sore mouth or something." Jackson yawned. "Listen, it's not that I don't think Stilinski isn't great or anything, because over the past little while since I've been bitten, I've seen that maybe McCall and him aren't that bad, but I really want to go home and get my homework done so I can sleep, so can we get this over with?" Jackson concluded, and some of the pack actually had the audacity to growl at him.
"If you don't want to be here, then don't." Erica snarled as Jackson just glared at her.
"Okay, fine. I'll stay. Just calm the hell down." Jackson said as the pack went back to talking, which they did for a while, but it was mainly all speculation. That's when Isaac pointed something out.
"He's been changing in the bathroom for gym class." He said, and a few people huffed at that information.
"Maybe he's self-conscious?" Scott said, and some of the pack looked at him like he was crazy. "W-what?" He sputtered.
"You do realize who we're talking about here, right?" Erica asked incredulously, "what would he have to be self-conscious about?"
"I... I don't know.…" Scott frowned, leaning forward in his chair, chin resting on his palms.
"Exactly."
"Well why else would he be hiding in the bathrooms while everyone's changing?" Scott questioned and Erica pursed her lips.
"I don't… he… he must be hiding something." She said, returning Scotts gaze.
"On his body? Doubtful." Scott said to Erica, who sighed. The room was silent for a moment or two, before Scott said, "maybe he joined a fight club." and almost everyone laughed. "No, seriously! I'm just saying, he smells like disinfectant, which could be from the injuries he gets in the fight club, And he may be changing in the bathrooms to hide the injuries! Also, the flinching at everything? Could totally be from getting beat up. Plus, he's been talking about wanting to get strong like, a lot lately… so…."
"You know, Scott's got a point." Isaac said, and all eyes turned to him disbelievingly, which caused him to look up at the ceiling for a second. "No, not the fight club thing, but think about it, changing in The bathroom, probably because of bruises or cuts on his body, the flinching from being beat up, the injuries he may or may not be cleaning… he's probably being bullied." He explained, and the entirety of the people in the room gasped. "He hasn't been with us at lunch hour, maybe that's when It's happening."
"Oh my God." Allison said. "Should… should we talk to him about it?" Allison paused, then said, "I mean, he'd probably deny it..."
"He wouldn't lie to us, not when his heart beat would give him away." Boyd pointed out as the room nodded in agreement.
"Then should we?" Allison asked, "talk to him I mean."
"I… don't think we should." Lydia said sternly.
"Well, it would clear everything up to just ask him, wouldn't it?" Asked Scott.
"We don't know for definite that that's what's going on, and do you really want to explain that we had" Lydia looked at her phone's lock screen, "a half-an-hour long meeting about what was wrong with him? I mean, you can ask him and in turn tell him about… this, if you want, but I'm certainly not."
"So what do you suggest we do?" Scott questioned. The wolves could smell the nervousness wafting off of nearly everyone in the room.
"We follow him, make-" Lydia started before Scott cut in,
"You're suggesting that we what, stalk him?" He growled, and Lydia looked up at the ceiling before focusing her eyes back on Scott.
"No," she said, " If you would have let me finish, I was going to say that we follow him and make sure he's never alone at school. Not that we stalk him." She finished, clenching her teeth together the whole time she spoke. Scott put his head down at her tone.
"Listen, don't be mad…" Scott said apologetically, "I care about him, and I'm worried too." He fidgeted with his hands, which sat atop his lap as Allison put her hand on his shoulder.
"Well then, act like it." Lydia flipped her hair before standing up. "Are we settled, then? She questioned with her eyes closed as Jackson followed her movements. A choir of 'yeah's and 'yes's flooded the room as most of the pack got up out of their seats too, getting ready to leave. They all felt good about themselves, having thought to have found out what was going on with Stiles.
Derek smiled once everyone left and it was just him, Peter and Isaac sitting around on the couches.
"What are you smiling about?" Peter asked, and Derek rested his head against the top of the couch.
"Hopefully things go back to normal around here." He said, and Peter cocked his head to the side.
"You mean with your little crush?" Peter smirked, but Derek wouldn't give him any reaction today.
"Yeah." Derek said.
Little did he know, the whole world could hope for Stiles' happiness, though nothing would change the fact that it wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, and that's just the way it was.