A/n: So, this is a Stiles/Jackson story. I usually both read and write sterek but I honestly feel like Stiles works with almost anyone and Jackson just fit better for this story.
I hope you enjoy it.
Scott had abandoned him and left him without protection. Again. Not that he was completely helpless anymore. He had started working out and taking self defense classes after this whole supernatural business started, but he still didn't stand a chance against a feral werewolf. Fortunately Derek swooped in at the last minute to save his ass while Scott was too busy with Allison. She was barely hurt but he still prioritized checking on her even though Stiles was about to get maimed.
That was two days ago, and Stiles so-called "best friend" still hadn't even come by to see if he was okay. Really, Stiles would have been fine with just a phone call, a text even, but he hadn't even gotten that.
Stiles was currently walking aimlessly through the preserve. Thinking about Scott made him angry and he needed to blow off some steam.
Suddenly he heard a rustling noise from the forest to his right. Then he heard what sounded like heavy footfalls, and they were heading straight towards him.
Stiles started panicking and the next thing he knew, a huge fox burst out of the bushes. It's dark fur was sticking out in every direction, spotted in what looked like dried blood, and it was snarling.
'Oh fuck.' Stiles thought, taking a cautious step back. 'This is so not good.'
The fox's eyes flashing a bright orange was the only warning he got before it attacked. It leapt forward, crashing into Stiles and bringing him to the ground.
Stiles groaned in pain, and then screamed as the fox sank its sharp teeth into his shoulder. It didn't seem like it was going to let go but suddenly it stopped. It raised its head and sniffed the air before jumping off him and going back into the forest.
Stiles' vision was starting to blur from the intense pain and the last thing he saw before he passed out was a tall figure slowly emerging from between the trees and walking towards him.
Stiles slowly stirred awake. He turned a few times before tiredly blinking his eyes open.
'Weird.' He thought as he noticed the white wall in front of him. His bedroom walls were painted a light blue-gray color. It was also cluttered with various notes and pictures, which the wall in front of him was not. It took a while for his sleep-addled brain to realize that the bed he had been sleeping in was much bigger than his own and that this was, in fact, not his bedroom.
It was then it all came back to him. The walk in the forest, the fox, the glowing eyes, the bite.
'Oh shit! The bite!' Stiles immediately shot up and pulled down the neckline of his t-shirt over his shoulder, only to see that someone had covered the wound in gauze. He didn't see any excess blood either so the person had probably cleaned it up.
Suddenly the bedroom door swung open and Jackson freaking Wittermote stepped in.
"Good, you're awake." he said and sat down on the desk chair.
Stiles looked around the room again. Everything was neat and tidy and one of the walls was covered in lacrosse posters, definitely Jackson's room.
"Jackson," he said disbelievingly. "You saved me?"
"I wasn't just going to let you die, I'm not that heartless." he hissed back angrily.
"You're right, I'm sorry. Thank you Jackson" Stiles said with an apologetic smile.
"You're welcome." Jackson grumbled before looking back up at him. "Do you know what it was that attacked you?"
"It looked like a big fox but I think it was some kind of supernatural creature, it's eyes glowed. I will have to check the bestiary."
Jackson nodded. "You should get some more sleep. It's Saturday so you can stay here, I have prepared the guest room."
"Oh, are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's fine. My parents are away so that won't be an issue. I left a towel and some spare clothes on the bed in case you want to take a shower, you still have some dirt in your hair from laying on the ground."
Stiles nodded and smiled. "Thanks."
Jackson looked away. "It's whatever."
After going to the guest room to pick up the towel and clothes Stiles entered the big bathroom. He stepped out of the clothes he was currently wearing and put them in a pile beside the bathtub before turning on the shower and stepping under the stream.
As the hot water washed over him he couldn't help but wonder why Jackson was being so nice to him.
After a few seconds he remembered that his shoulder was still covered in gauze and that he probably should have removed it before he showered. It didn't hurt anymore so he hadn't thought about it.
Taking a step back from the water he carefully peeled the gauze back. After throwing it in the nearby trash can he craned his neck to look down at his injured shoulder, preparing himself for the undoubtedly ugly sight of the wound.
Only, there was no wound. Just a smooth expanse of pale skin. 'Definitely supernatural then.' Stiles thought with a sigh.
He finished his shower quickly after that, not yet ready to fully acknowledge what a bite like that meant, and after drying himself off he took a look at the clothes Jackson had given him. The black t-shirt was a little too big, he wasn't quite as muscular as Jackson, but the gray sweatpants fit just fine.
Stiles pulled them on and exited the bathroom. He went back to Jackson's room and knocked on the door. A faint "come in" was heard from the other side so he pushed it open just enough to poke his head through.
"I just wanted to thank you again for helping me." he said awkwardly and rubbed his hand to the back of his neck.
Jackson looked up from the book he had apparently been reading. "As I said, it's fine." he replied nonchalantly. "I was just at the right place at the right time."
"Right." Stiles nodded. "Well, good night."
"Good night."
Stiles closed the door and went over to the guest room. His phone had still been in his jeans pocket so he brought it with him and sent a text to his dad saying that he would be staying at a friend's house for the night. Jackson wasn't exactly a friend but his dad didn't need to know specifically who he was with.
He put the phone on the nightstand and crawled into the bed. Apparently getting attacked and bitten by supernatural creatures really drained you because almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, Stiles was asleep.
The next morning he woke up by stretching and then promptly falling out of the bed. He hit the floor with a thud but was still too tired to feel much pain. After laying on the floor for a few seconds Stiles got up. He could hear what sounded like someone rummaging through cabinets in the kitchen downstairs, which he definitely shouldn't have been able to.
He walked out of the room and slowly made his way down the stairs. When he went into the kitchen he saw Jackson putting some fried eggs on two plates.
"G'morning?" he said tiredly and slightly confused.
"Good morning." Jackson responded gruffly. "I made breakfast, thought you might be hungry."
"Yeah, thanks." Stiles said and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs.
Jackson put the plates on the table, along with cutlery and two glasses of orange juice, before sitting down himself.
Breakfast was quiet, but not as weird as it probably should have been. When they were done and had put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher Stiles stood there awkwardly.
"I should probably get going before my dad starts to wonder where I am." he said after a few seconds of silence.
"Yeah, sure. I washed your jeans if you want to change. Your shirt got pretty shredded though but you can borrow mine."
Stiles smiled. "Thanks."
He went upstairs to change and then came back down. Since his Jeep was still parked at the edge of the preserve, Jackson offered to drive him to it.
They got into his Porsche and started driving. After a while the Jeep came into sight and Jackson parked next to the blue vehicle.
"Thank you for the drive. I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow?"
Jackson glanced at him quickly before nodding. "See you."
Stiles got out of the car and went over to the Jeep. After getting in and starting the engine he looked up to find Jackson was already gone.
He shook his head and began the ride home.
At school the next day Jackson didn't even look at him. He didn't know why he was surprised, it was Jackson after all, but for some reason it made him feel a strange sense of disappointment and sadness. Stiles had thought that maybe things would be different now, that they could be friends. But it was as Jackson said, he had only helped him because he was at the right place at the right time. It was nothing special.
He saw Scott a few times during the day but didn't talk to him. At lunch he bought a sandwich and ate it outside so he could be alone.
When the bell signaled the end of last period, Stiles quickly gathered his stuff and went out to the Jeep. After driving home he went up to his room and sat down at his desk. He had spent most of the day before trying to find information on the fox creature which resulted in him being behind on his math homework.
About an hour later he suddenly heard a voice behind him. "Stiles."
"Jesus!" he shouted and almost fell out of his chair. He turned around to see Jackson standing beside his window. "What is with you supernatural people and climbing through my window?" Stiles complained. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
"Sorry." Jackson mumbled and sat down on the foot end of the bed.
"What are you even doing here?"
Jackson almost seemed surprised at the question. "I wanted to see how you were doing. Did you find anything about the fox creature?"
"Yeah, you seemed really concerned about my well being at school today." Stiles grumbled. Jackson looked like he was about to say something but Stiles held his hand up to stop him. "It doesn't matter. According to what I have found, the creature that attacked me was a werefox. Not much is known about them, but they seem pretty similar to werewolves. Claws, fangs, glowy eyes, heightened senses. But they, we, god that feels weird, are not as strong as werewolves. Definitely stronger than humans but weaker than werewolves, we are faster and have better reflexes though. There is also a full shift, and the moon doesn't have the same power over werefoxes as it does with wolves so it should be easier to stay in control."
"Have you managed to shift yet?" Jackson asked curiously.
"Only the eyes and claws." Stiles closed his eyes for a few seconds and when he opened them again they were glowing a bright fiery orange. He then raised his right hand to show the sharp claws that had grown instead of his fingernails. He shook his head and the glowing eyes and claws disappeared. "The full shift takes more practice."
Jackson nodded and then they sat there in awkward silence for a while before Jackson broke it. "I should probably get going. Thank you for showing me." He said and went over to the window. "I'm glad the bite took. That you're okay." He added, almost as an afterthought, before jumping out.
Stiles didn't know why but the words left a warm, almost fuzzy feeling in his stomach. Not wanting to think too much into it, he simply shrugged it off and went back to his homework.
The next day was a bad one. His alarm didn't go off properly which meant that he was late to first period. After that he had chemistry and Mr. Harris was an ass as usual. He remarked on every thing he did and kept asking difficult questions about things they hadn't even gone through yet, just to make Stiles look bad.
At lunch Scott wanted to talk to him. Well, talk wasn't quite the right word. As soon as he caught sight of him he grabbed him and slammed him against a wall. "What is going on with you?" he hissed.
"Nothing is going on! What are you even talking about?"
"You smell different."
"What do you mean 'I smell different'?"
"You don't smell human anymore. You asked Derek to bite you didn't you?! It's a curse!" Scott whisper-shouted.
"No Scott, I didn't ask Derek to fucking bite me!" Stiles hissed back angrily.
"Yes you did! You are jealous that I have become popular while you are still a loser, so you got him to turn you too!"
"I don't care about being popular!" Stiles was close to shifting now. His hands were balled into fists and he could feel the sharp points of his claws digging into his palms when suddenly Jackson appeared next to him.
"Back off Scott." he said and shoved him backwards. He then grabbed a hold of Stiles' forearm and dragged him out of the cafeteria and into an empty classroom.
"Stiles, calm down." he said and placed his hands on the other boy's shoulders.
Stiles took a few deep breaths until the claws eventually disappeared. He held up his hands and saw the skin around the wounds already starting to knit itself together. After one last calming breath he looked up and met Jackson's eyes. "Thank you."
"It's fine." Jackson said. He finally seemed to realize that his hands were still resting on Stiles' shoulders and quickly took them off. "We can't have you shifting in front of everyone now, can we?"
"No, we can't." Stiles said with a nervous laugh. He then sighed and put his head in his hand. "Scott is such an idiot," he huffed out. "I have never wanted the bite, and if he just used his sense of smell he would realize that I'm not even a werewolf!"
"I thought you were supposed to be best friends." Jackson said with a raised eyebrow.
"We were, but Scott changed after the bite. Suddenly he was good at sports, became popular and got a girlfriend. Now everything is just Allison this and Allison that, he doesn't have time for me anymore. I can't even count how many times he has blown me off for her, even when I was in danger. That time when kanima-you tried to kill me and Derek at the pool, I called him for help. He didn't even let me explain what was happening, he just said 'I'm with Allison, can't talk' and hung up on me."
"Wow, he is a shitty friend. Especially after what happened in the cafeteria."
"I know, and it almost made me shift. I was the one who taught him control, but now I'm in the same boat and he can't help me."
Jackson seemed to hesitate slightly before talking. "I can try to help you with control. If you want to."
Stiles smiled at him. "Really? That would be great."
Jackson nodded. "Meet me at the entrance to the preserve after school."
The following weeks Stiles and Jackson met up regularly to practice both control and fighting, and as they did so, they started growing closer.
After learning the partial shift, Stiles started trying to do the full shift.
"Come on." Jackson said. "Focus, I know you can do it."
Stiles closed his eyes and did as Jackson said. He didn't feel anything at first but after a few seconds the shift flowed through him like a wave, making him go down on all four. Where Stiles had been standing, a fox now stood in his place. It was slightly larger than a regular fox, with reddish brown fur and dark legs, big ears, a fluffy tail and bright eyes twinkling with mischief. It yipped happily and wagged its tail before it started running in circles around Jackson. Eventually it stopped in front of him and turned back into Stiles. "I did it!" he yelled excitedly and fist-bumped the air.
"Yeah, you transformed." Jackson said, keeping his eyes carefully trained on Stiles' face. "But your clothes didn't."
Stiles looked down and saw that he was completely naked, his clothes laying in shreds a few feet away. He blushed and quickly moved to cover himself. "Oops. You don't happen to have any spare clothes do you?"
Jackson sighed and went over to his car. He pulled out a pair of lacrosse shorts from the sports bag inside and threw them in Stiles' direction. Thanks to his new heightened reflexes he easily caught them and gratefully put them on. "Thanks." Stiles said awkwardly and self-consciously rubbed his neck.
"No problem." Jackson answered whilst trying to fight down the small blush forming on his cheeks. "Do you want to keep training or should we call it a day?"
"I managed the full shift and I'm pretty tired so I should probably go home and rest. We should keep going tomorrow though."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow."
They both climbed into their separate cars and drove home. Stiles went up to his room and laid down on the bed. He tried to focus on reading the bestiary but for some reason he couldn't get Jackson out of his head. How he had stood up to Scott, how he had offered to help him, the blush that had covered his cheekbones when…. No! No, no, no. He could not be crushing on Jackson. He had realized that he liked guys as well as girls a while ago, mostly thanks to Danny, but Jackson of all people? The guy was a douche! Though he had been much kinder lately. Just like with Scott the bite had changed him, but in his case it was actually for the better. Becoming the kanima must have put some things in perspective for him. He hadn't completely lost the attitude but would he really be Jackson without it? Not wanting to deal with his own thoughts any more, Stiles went down to start preparing dinner.
A few days went by and nothing really interesting happened. Stiles realized that he did, in fact, have a crush on Jackson and as it sunk in he was having a harder and harder time controlling his emotions during their training sessions.
Today they were practicing fighting techniques and though Jackson was stronger, Stiles was faster. Eventually Stiles was able to use that to his advantage and bring Jackson to the ground, holding his legs down by sitting on them and pinning his arms to the ground. Their faces just inches apart, they simply stared at each other for a while before Stiles, without thinking, leaned down and kissed him. As soon as he realized what he was doing he jumped off Jackson as though he had been burnt and stuttered out an apology before sprinting towards his Jeep and driving away. Jackson was left on the ground, confused and staring at the spot where Stiles had disappeared.
Stiles was sitting at his bed with his head in hands. How had he been so stupid as to kiss Jackson? By kissing him he had probably ruined his chance to even be friends with the guy. He groaned and turned around to lay on his stomach with his face buried in the pillow. Maybe if he laid there long enough he would suffocate and not have to deal with the consequences. His dad would probably miss him but he will get over it eventually.
Suddenly Stiles heard a faint tapping noise and then the sound of the window being slid open. He looked up to see Jackson standing there. "Jackson? What are you doing here?"
The former kanima sighed and walked over to sit on the bed next to him. "When you kissed me," he began and Stiles immediately felt mortification wash over him.
"Look, I'm sorry but…"
"Stiles. Let me finish, please." He waited for Stiles to nod before he continued. "When you kissed me, I was...surprised. I needed some time to think, but I have realized. I like you too."
Stiles just stared at him with a dumbfounded expression. "W-what?"
"Since you kissed me, I'm guessing that you have feelings for me. And, I like you too." Jackson smiled.
"Does that mean I can kiss you again?"
"Definitely."
Stiles leant forward and captured Jackson's smirking lips in a kiss. His lips were soft, just like last time, but this time he was actually kissing back. After what could have been seconds, minutes or hours they pulled away. "I should probably go home, but I will pick you up before school tomorrow."
That took Stiles by surprise. "Really? I didn't think you would want to risk ruining your reputation by being seen with me."
"Stiles. I'm not going to hide you away like a dirty secret. I want you to be my boyfriend, and if you're okay with people knowing, then so am I."
Stiles nodded with a smile playing at his lips. "Okay."
The next morning, Stiles had a huge smile on his face while eating breakfast. "What has got you in such a good mood?" His dad asked, somewhat suspiciously, as he looked up from his coffee.
"Nothing special." He answered cheerily. They kept eating and a few minutes later they heard the sound of a car roll up outside, followed by a honking. "That's my ride." Stiles said and carried his, now empty, cereal bowl over to the sink.
The sheriff turned towards the window and looked at the fancy car outside. "Is that…Jackson Whittemore?" He asked, disbelief clearly written on his face.
"Yup!"
"Since when are you friends?"
"Since a few weeks ago. I gotta go, bye!" Stiles shouted over his shoulder and hurried out the door, not wanting to have to answer more questions from his dad. He half ran down the driveway and climbed into the passenger seat of Jackson's car. He greeted him and they started the drive towards the school.
They got a few looks over the day and overheard a few whispers about why they were suddenly hanging out but nothing too bad. At lunch they sat with Danny who was nice as always. He is Jackson's best friend so he had probably already been informed about their relationship.
It all went to hell when Scott walked in. He saw them sitting together and stalked up to them with an angry expression. "Stiles, why are you sitting with them?" He growled.
"Why not?" He countered and stood up to face him.
"Because Jackson is an ass, you hate him!"
"No, Scott. I don't hate my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?!" He looked livid now.
"Yeah, that a problem?"
"What about Lydia?"
"I still stand by what I always said. Lydia is an amazing person and a beautiful genius but I finally realized that she will never return my feelings and moved on. I have been over her for months. Not that you would care enough to notice."
"You can't date Jackson!"
"Why not? We have been spending time together for weeks and he has been way nicer than you lately."
Scott took a step forward and flashed his glowing eyes, probably trying to intimidate him, but Stiles just flashed his own in return. Scott stepped back again. His surprised expression quickly turned back to anger.
"I thought you said Derek didn't bite you!" He hissed, just quiet enough so that no one would overhear them.
"He didn't, I'm not even a werewolf." He saw that Scott was about to protest so he quickly kept going. "I was attacked by a fucking werefox two days after we took down that feral werewolf. You know, when I almost didn't survive because you were too busy kissing Allison's bruises better. I don't have anything against Allison, and I understand that you're worried about your girlfriend, but she was barely hurt. You could have at least waited until everyone was out of danger. You didn't even make sure I was okay afterwards. You know why? Because you're a lousy best friend!" He shouted the last part and by now the whole cafeteria was staring at them.
Scott raised his fists and tried to attack him but Stiles simply stepped out of the way. He kept his foot out so that Scott stumbled on it and fell to the floor. The furious werewolf stood back up and took a few steps towards him but stopped in his tracks when he saw that both Jackson and Danny had gotten up to stand behind him. He couldn't take down all three of them.
Stiles stood with his arms crossed over his chest, Jackson and Danny standing in similar positions on either side of him. "Walk away Scott."
The other boy glared at them one last time before he turned and stormed out of the room. Stiles sighed and then simply sat back down at the table and kept eating like nothing happened. Jackson and Danny glared at the other occupants of the cafeteria, as if daring them to say something, before they too sat back down. The trio could hear whispered conversations all over the room, probably gossip about what had just happened, but ignored it. The rumor mill would be in full action by tomorrow but for now, Stiles was content.
A/n: Thank you for reading this story. Reviews and favorites are always appreciated, it means a lot.
