I hope everyone is doing well in these difficult times with the virus and the riots and everything. Crazy times, huh? Hope you enjoy the chapter.

"Now the door is open

The world I knew is broken

There's no return

Now my heart is not scared

Just knowing that you're out there"

When the Darkness Comes by Colbie Caillat

The sun filtered through my bedroom window and I stared up at the ceiling lost in thought about the previous night. Lydia's birthday. Full moon. Hostage situation. Stiles clued me in through text on what had happened at Lydia's party and the sheriff's station before I arrived. How Lydia had gotten a hold of wolfsbane and why she poisoned all of her guests, I had no idea, but at least I knew she was definitely the one that kidnapped Derek; however, Derek hadn't answered my texts wondering what had happened to him last night, and I knew Deaton wouldn't give me any straight answers if I asked him.

A knock on my window drew me from my thoughts. I sat up and looked only to see Isaac crouched on the roof outside. Raising an eyebrow, I climbed off the bed, went to my window and opened it. "What are you doing?" I asked, leaning forward on the window sill.

"I was wondering if we could talk," he answered seriously. "Preferably inside. It's freaking cold out here."

I smirked and tilted my head, letting my eyes rake over him and noticing his shaking hands. "I dunno. I kinda like watching you suffer." I glanced behind him, seeing the trees flowing in the wind and Isaac's breath turning to steam in the air, but the cold didn't affect me. "It is a bit nippy."

"You're terrible, I hope you know that." He smiled anyway.

"I do, I really do." I grinned and moved out of the way so he could climb inside.

"Thanks." Isaac slipped inside my room. I shut the window and turned around. He stood in the middle of my room squeezing his hands like something was plaguing his mind. His eyebrows were scrunched together.

I set a hand on his arm. "What's wrong?"

Isaac let out a slow breath, forced himself to put his hands down at his side, and looked at me with his big blue eyes. It kind of worried me. "I'm sorry about the other day."

That's it? I asked myself."It's alright."

He shook his head and brought his hands to my shoulders. "No, it's not alright. I was making you uncomfortable, and I just kept going, and I'm sorry."

I smiled up at him and grabbed one of his hands, holding it in both of mine. "It was the full moon, Izzy. It wasn't you."

The hand on my shoulder slid down to join the others. His eyes and lips were droopy like an upset puppy. "It wasn't just the full moon. It's been on my mind for a while. Then I bring it up at the worst possible time. It gets brushed aside because I am a dumbass and used it as a way to get the upper hand which probably made you think I was joking. Then I don't talk about it until the day before the full moon, and I wouldn't have brought it up otherwise."

"You wouldn't have?"

Isaac huffed and shook his head. "Of course, I wouldn't have. We're friends, right? Just friends. I was stupid to entertain the idea of anything else." He paused as I thought over his words. Where's he going with this? "I like being your friend. I don't want to ruin it just because. . . because I like you as more than a friend."

My eyes widened and my eyebrows shot up to my hairline. My heartbeat began to speed up rapidly. "Really? You-you do?" Is he serious? I asked myself. Please tell me he's being serious.

A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. "Yeah, why wouldn't I? You're honest and funny and smart and-and beautiful. Any guy would be dumb not to like you." His thumbs stroked the back of my hands.

"Or gay," I pointed out, probably not helping the topic at hand.

He laughed, showcasing his amazing smile. "Yeah, yeah, or gay. Although, I'm pretty sure Danny thinks you're cool."

"Lucky me." I shrugged with a smirk.

His beautiful eyes became lighter as they silently pleaded. "Can you forgive me?"

"On one condition."

"Name it," he requested quickly. "Anything. I just don't want things to be awkward or uncomfortable between us."

I bit my lip. He likes me, huh? "Kiss me."

"Huh?" With his tipped head and scrunched features, he was a confused puppy dog. And I had never seen anything cuter in my life.

"Kiss me like you were gonna do that night at the rave."

His jaw dropped open and shut a few times like a fish out of water. "You remember that? A-are you sure that that's wha-what you want?" He nodded to himself, mild confusion and confliction bubbling through him. "I mean, 'cause you had moved away pretty quickly that night."

I scoffed, smiled, and licked my bottom lip. "Isaac, if I have to ask one more time for you to finally make a move, I will seriously consider tossing you out the window you climbed in through."

"I'll do anything to keep that smile on your face." Isaac slowly moved closer and began inching his head down, giving me plenty of time to back out if I wanted to. Obviously, I didn't. With how confident he had grown with the onset of his new werewolf abilities, I forgot he was the same incredibly inexperienced and shy boy I had been crushing on for months. It was part of his appeal, the lost puppy dog look.

"You move too slow," I whispered and shot upwards to connect our lips, standing on my toes to reach. Taking my hands from his, I lace them behind his neck to hold him close. He set his hands hesitantly on my waist before relaxing and pulling my body closer to his. My lips moved slowly against his. They were softer than I had imagined and the kiss sweet.

When I pulled away enough to look at him, a big goofy grin graced his face. "I honestly never thought my first kiss would be with you. I mean-not that it-I liked it. I'm glad it's you."

"Your first kiss was actually last night while you were wolfed out, but potato, potahto." I shrugged my shoulders with a smirk.

Isaac chuckled. "You are insane, that was a kind of stupid thing to do, and I don't know if I'll ever understand your line of thought, but I'll admit it worked," he conceded.

My fingers twirled and played with the hair on the back of his head. "Of course it worked. You just needed something to focus your mind, like holding your breath during a panic attack. Something to take your mind off of what was wrong."

"Well, thank you, for everything. Can we-can we kiss again?" A light blush plastered his cheeks.

"You don't need to ask. Go ahead." That was all he needed to hear.

Each of Derek's betas were in hiding for the days following what had happened during the full moon. I didn't know where Erica and Boyd were hiding, and I still hadn't heard from Derek, but Isaac had chosen my place as his hideout. Not that I minded. It mostly consisted of him playing with my hair while watching me play video games and me sneaking up food from the kitchen. My parents didn't know he was in my room. And they weren't going to know.

There was also the occasional sneaking of a kiss.

It was sweet and simple and nice. Everything I could have possibly hoped kissing my best friend would be like.

But there was something bothering him. I could feel it in my bones every time he stared off into space, distracted by his thoughts. Then I'd run my hand through his hair and he'd be drawn out of it, returning his attention back to me. While I liked having his attention solely focused on me, I mean, what girl wouldn't want to have the attention of the guy she had feelings for, whatever he was thinking about was clearly important and needed to be talked about.

As we laid on my bed on Saturday morning, I moved up on my bed to lean on my arm and be eye to eye with him. Isaac shifted to face me. He knew what I was going to ask. "What's wrong?" I wondered softly, tracing a pattern on his arm.

He stopped my hand, taking it into his own to hold it. "Last night, while you were asleep, I went to see Boyd and Erica," he told me. "Wanted to see how they were doing, you know?"

"Are they alright?" I asked, my eyebrows pinching together in worry.

"They're. . . they're. . . yeah, they're fine." Isaac shook his head as he looked away from me. "They're just-" He laced his fingers through mine and sighed.

"Isaac." It felt weird to say his actual name and not some nickname, but he got the gist, bringing his gaze back up to mine.

"They want to leave."

I fully sat up, pulling my hand out of his grasp. "They want to what?"

"I know, I know how it sounds," he said, reaching for my hand again as he also sat up. "They want to leave Beacon Hills. I didn't say I want to."

I kept my hands away from his and gave him a stern look. "But you were thinking about it. I know you, Isaac. You were definitely thinking about it, so don't bullshit me." My fox-spirit began reacting to my anger.

"Okay, okay, I did, for like a minute, but I'm not anymore. I'm just worried about them, I swear." I didn't reply, simply choosing to look away. Part of me didn't believe him. It was ingrained in him to run and hide from receiving years of abuse from his father. I couldn't blame him, but leaving was a stupid option regardless of how I would feel about it. "Sara, please look at me." Isaac gingerly grabbed one of my hands as I let my eyes drift up to his. "Look at it from their perspective. Derek hasn't exactly been around. He hasn't been teaching us much either. He also went missing on the night of the full moon. And there is still a kanima to worry about. They're scared. And if I'm honest, I am, too.

"We're supposed to be able to look to our alpha for leadership and guidance, but Derek isn't exuding leadership qualities. They want to find someone that could actually help. I have you, so it's easier, but they don't have anyone but each other to help them through this supernatural stuff. I promise I'm not going to leave you behind." He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it bringing a small smile to my face.

I breathed deeply, attempted to placate the agitated fox within me. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Sunday afternoon, my parents went out shopping or something. I thought they just wanted to get out of the house and avoid the awkwardness between us three, but regardless, it let Isaac freely leave my room for more than going to the bathroom.

I opened the fridge and looked inside while he dug through the cabinets. "What looks good, Izzy?" I asked as I moved some stuff around.

"Sometimes I wonder how we're friends when the only thing in your damn cupboards is healthy food," he replied. I stood up straight and turned to him with a playful glare. Isaac simply responded with an innocent smile.

Shutting the fridge, I opened the freezer. "We do have ice cream, but it's lactose-free and has less sugar." I grabbed the ice cream tub and held it out for him. "I'm the only one that eats it."

He begrudgingly took it. "What's the point of ice cream if it doesn't have a lot of sugar?"

I shrugged and leaned against the island counter. "You think I know? Ask my mom. She's the one that bought it instead of the normal stuff. Lactose-free, I understand."

Isaac grabbed a spoon and peeled open the tub of mint chocolate ice cream. "You know what this needs? Cake." Picking my head up, I got an idea. Isaac noticed my change in attitude. "What?'

"We have ingredients for a cake. We'll have to make our own icing because there is no way my mom would ever stock that in the house unless specifically planning to bake a cake, but I'm sure there are recipes online for icing with the ingredients my mom does keep."

Isaac put away the ice cream. "Do you even know how to bake a cake?"

"I've seen my mom do it, and I can follow instructions, so how hard can it be?"

It was hard. Baking was fucking hard. Like why the hell would people do it on their own for fun?

Two minutes in, Isaac had thrown a pinch of flour on my hair. A moment later, I countered with a handful of flour in his face. About ten minutes in, Isaac dropped an egg on the floor. And then I stepped in it and slipped a little. We also dirtied way too many damn dishes and probably messed up some of the measurements and the order we were supposed to do a few things in.

But it was all worth it the moment we threw the cake pan in the oven.

Isaac and I slumped against the counter next to the stove, both of us covered in flour, some egg, and probably little bits of cocoa powder. Pretty sure I had some down my shirt, too. It wasn't comfortable at all.

"Well, that's over," Isaac said with a chuckle. "What now?"

"Icing, and also cleaning." I gestured at the utter disaster we had created. "My mom is going to kill me."

He nudged me with his arm. "She'll have to kill me, too." Isaac looked absolutely adorable covered in baking ingredients. Too bad the moment would be short-lived with having to clean up the mess. But I knew of a way to draw it out at least a little longer.

With my face close to his, I began to lean in, in the hopes of kissing him, but someone rang the doorbell. I groaned. "Who the hell could that be?"

Isaac tilted his head as he tuned in with his super hearing. "Scott and Stiles," he eventually said. "Were you expecting them?"

I grimaced. "Does it look like I was expecting them?"

He glanced down at my ruined clothes. "You've got a point. Let me just. . . " He used his thumb to wipe off some flour from my cheek. "That's a little better." The doorbell rang again. "You should get that. Scott can probably hear us in here." For perfect timing, the doorbell rang twice more.

"I'm going to kill them."

"I'll help hide the bodies."

I grinned and placed a quick kiss on Isaac's cheek before leaving the kitchen, glad I had his full support to kill Dumb and Dumber. Opening the front door, I released my full glare on the pair. "What do you want?" I asked harshly. "I'm busy."

Stiles nodded a few times. "And here I thought we were friends," he said, not answering my question. "You show up at my door unannounced, and I can't return the favor. Tragic." My grip tightened on the door. If I could have glared harder, I would have. Isaac hadn't quite been told that I spent a whole day with Stiles, and I honestly didn't know how he'd react, especially since he was part of the reason I went over to Stiles's house in the first place. And there was no way Isaac wasn't listening in.

Thankfully, Scott seemed to notice my change and gently pushed Stiles back a few steps. "We need your help with something. Or, well, I need your help," Scott explained.

I'll admit I was curious as to what Scott could possibly need help with. "With what?"

"My mom. She won't even look at me after what happened at the station." If anyone could beat out Isaac's puppy-dog look, it was one Scott McCall. He looked so tragic and innocent.

My jaw clenched for a moment as I thought over it. It didn't take very long to come to a verdict. Of course, I had to help. A freaked out human could be a danger to every supernatural. I stepped aside and held the door open wider. "Take off your shoes otherwise I'll neuter the both of you," I ordered-slash-threatened. As they stepped inside, they both quickly took off their shoes and set them by the others. I closed the door behind them.

They followed me into the kitchen where Isaac had begun sweeping the floor. "I was wondering why you look like you just did a pound of cocaine," Stiles remarked at the sight of the ruined kitchen and Isaac.

Grabbing a paper towel, I dampened it with water, ignoring the hyperactive teenager and looking to Scott as I started wiping down the tiled counter. "Just ask what you wanna ask."

Scott and Stiles sat on two of the bar stools on the other side of the island. "Have you ever had to tell someone you're a kitsune?" Scott asked.

"Uh, not really, not in the way you're thinking," I answered. "Just Isaac, Erica, and Boyd, but obviously, they were easy to tell." I tossed the paper towel into the trash along with everything I had scooped up with it and leaned forward on the counter. "Look, Scotty, your mom just needs some time. Derek and I were born into this life. Isaac, Erica, and Boyd were offered this life. Stiles got dragged in but also found out in a non-traumatic way. Remember when you were bitten?" Scott nodded slowly, hanging onto every word I said. "It was scary, right? Middle of the night. All alone in the dark woods. A monster attacking you. You got through it in time. Lydia saw a monster crash through a window and was attacked at our winter formal and left for dead in the middle of the lacrosse field, sorta. She, for better or worse, got through it in time. Your mom saw her only son get shot, then saw a wolfed-out Derek and a freaking kanima try to kill each other, then saw you wolfed-out, all while she was behind bars helpless to do anything about it."

I shrugged and shook my head. "Sure, I was in there with her trying to melt the damn bars, and from what she saw of me, I was a hell of a lot less scary and threatening, but my presence didn't really help." I looked Scott straight in the eyes, trying my hardest not to look away in discomfort because I knew he needed the reassurance. "Your mom went through something traumatic. She needs time and support to get through it. Just remind her you're there. Remind her that you're still her son, that you're still the same old Scott McCall that everyone knows and loves. I guarantee she'll come around eventually, but it probably won't be today. It probably won't be tomorrow either. There is a lot she has to process. She was introduced to the supernatural in the worst way possible. It's not going to be an overnight process."

"You sound like you've been through this before," Scott said quietly.

My thoughts flashed to the death of my brother as my eyes drifted downwards. "Something similar but not the same. It's a similar reaction. Pulling away from everyone. Thinking about what you did wrong or what you could've done differently. Thinking, 'Why me? Why them?' Time heals all wounds as long as you let it heal. It'll scar, sure, but people are resilient. Supernatural or not, we're built to overcome a lot. You and your mom will be fine." I turned my gaze to Stiles. "You, on the other hand, can avoid all this if you just tell your dad already."

"I've, uh, definitely been thinking about it," Stiles replied.

Scott tried to give me a smile, but it didn't have much heart. Nevertheless, I could tell that, while awkward, he was grateful. "Thanks, Sara."

"Yeah, no problem. Now, can you please leave?" I requested, pointing in the direction of the front door. "I don't know when my parents are coming home, and we've got to finish cleaning up. And I don't really wanna explain why I have two werewolves in the house. Or three guys. The question will depend on which parent asks first."

That brought an actual smile to Scott's face. "Yeah, yeah, we're going. Thanks again."

I nodded and waved, watching them walk out of the kitchen. One I heard the front door open and shut, I turned around to see Isaac leaning on the counter with the broom still in his hand.

"Killing them probably would've been easier," he remarked.

I snorted and smiled. "Yeah, probably."

"So, you went to Stiles's house?"

"I needed someone to talk to, okay? You were acting weird and I got into a fight with my mom. I didn't wanna stay home with my mom or deal with moon-affected wolves. And I don't exactly have many friends, so I offered to tell him all about kitsune if I could lay low at his place for the day."

"I'm sorry."

I quickly shook my head, crossing my arms over my chest. "No, it actually wasn't too bad. Kicked his ass at chess for a few hours. Got looked at weird by his dad. Scott showed up at some point. It was actually kinda nice to talk to people for a change."

Isaac set the broom against the counter so it wouldn't fall over and stepped up in front of me. "That's not what I meant. You fought with your mom. Considering everything you've told me about her and your relationship with her and also with the fight happening obviously shortly after I left, you fought about me, didn't you? Because I'm a werewolf?"

"That's what started it, yeah." I slowly nodded, the corners of my lips turning into a frown. "But it wasn't just that. I yelled at her because of how she's been thinking of werewolves ever since Riichi died, how it wasn't the Hales' fault that he died, and that Derek, despite his flaws, is just trying to help others. You being a werewolf may have kickstarted the conversation, but it wasn't the real reason. Talking to someone not involved in any aspect was a good distraction from being alone in my head for once."

Isaac pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. "You can come to me with anything. I hope you know that."

"I do."