Fandom: Teen Wolf
Story Title: "Brighter Than Before"
Summary: Stiles hates group projects on principal.
Character/Relationship(s): Erica Reyes/Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski, Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Jackson Whittemore/Lydia Martin Isaac Lahey, Sheriff Stilinski, Melissa McCall
Rating: T
Warnings: Mentions of epilepsy, language
Story Word Count: 13000+ (so far)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable.
Notes: This chapter is literally, literally, the whole reason this story was written. It was supposed to be "Erica and Stiles go to a con, and lose their virginities" the end. Only I had to add 10k of character development/plot, God only knows why. But anyway, there won't be any sex on here, but it'll all be on AO3 if you're interested. So, enjoy I guess.
Brighter Than Before
Chapter Four
Stiles likes to think that he knows his best friend. He knows Scott's brand of inhaler, his favorite food, what his hair looks like in the morning. (Ventolin, his mom's chicken soup, fluffy.)
He also knows what Scott looks like when he's about to drop a bombshell. And that's the expression that Scott is currently wearing. "Oh God, I don't like that look. That that face and put it far away from me because I can already tell that I don't need this in my life."
"Stiles," Scott says, and Stiles holds his breath. He can take this. "I can't go with you to Wondercon."
"What? We've had this planned for months! We've had these tickets for months. Months."
"I know," Scott says, and he looks like a puppy someone hit with a rolled up newspaper. Stiles would very much like to hit him with a rolled up newspaper right now. "And I'm so sorry dude, I suck."
"Why can't you go? Please tell me that this doesn't have something to do with Allison-" He dares to take a look at Scott's face and immediately wishes that he hadn't. "Don't tell me this has something to do with Allison."
"Fine, I won't tell you," Scott says, and tries to walk away.
"What happened to bros before beautiful women?" Stiles yells at him as he goes.
Scott stops at that and turns back around. "It's her family, dude. Evidently they all go on these crazy hunting trips, and they're going on one and it's on the weekend of Wondercon. And Allison's aunt is going to be there and I just want her family to like me."
He looks so downtrodden that if this situation wasn't so unfair and unjust Stiles would laugh. Allison's parents-her dad especially-really does seem to hate Scott. It's sort of beyond hilarious.
Stiles is just grateful that Erica's dad likes him. He's only met her mom once-evidently her mom's work schedule is crazy, which is why her dad runs his insurance company from home-and she'd just looked him up and down before patting his cheek and calling him cute in a saccharine voice and walking away.
"What about your Kyle costume? And the money that you spent on the hotel room? Because we sure as hell can't get that back."
Scott shrugs. "This is kinda more important to me. You can find someone else to go with you, can't you?"
"Uh, no. No I cannot. Which is why I asked you in the first place."
"I'm really sorry, dude." Scott shrugs and looks sincere and Stiles forgives him. Mostly.
.
"Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?" Erica asks him in study hall.
"Scott."
"Really?"
"No," Stiles sighs and runs a hand through his buzz cut. "It's just. Remember how I told you that we were going to Wondercon together?"
"Yeah?"
"Well he can't go anymore. He's going camping with Allison's family instead." Erica's eyebrows shot up, but before she can say anything Stiles gets an idea. A very, very good idea. Why he hadn't thought about this immediately he has no idea. "Hey Erica, do you want to go instead? Since my best friend abandoned me and everything?"
"You're not nearly as good at puppy eyes as Scott. Clearly not everything can be learned through osmosis." She laughs a little before stopping. "Oh, you're serious, aren't you?"
"Duh."
"Well I'd have to ask my parents, and I don't know..." her eyebrows furrow. "I don't know how well that'd go over. Weren't you two planning to spend the night?"
"We can say that we got two hotel rooms, or something."
The prospect of having to go to Wondercon alone was not a thrilling one. He could imagine having to go through the convention center alone, waiting in line alone, doing everything alone and felt lonely just at the thought. He was a social person, he needs to have someone there with him that he already knows.
"I'll have to ask, but I think my dad will say yes." She grins at him then, like she can barely contain her excitement, and Stiles grins back.
He hopes this works.
.
She calls him that night. "So, my mom was a tough sell. Really tough, like I figured she would be. But as soon as I said that we'd have separate rooms," Erica says separate rooms as though someone's listening and she wants to emphasize the fact, "he was all for it. In fact, he was so for it that he almost wanted to come with us-"
"Oh God," Stiles says, thinking about what a disaster that would be. He liked Mr. Reyes and everything, but the fact of the matter was there was still only one room. Erica's dad was cool, but not that cool.
"But I managed to talk him out of that one too. I'm coming, though. It's been decided."
"You're a goddess."
Erica snorts. "Thanks. So now I have to figure out what I'm going to do about a costume because you are not going to be the only one that's going to cosplay..."
"I'm sure whatever you're going to do will be great," he tells her.
"You're going as Batman, right?" Erica asks.
"Yeah..."
"Oh, then I know exactly what I'm going to do. But I have to get started now if I'm going to finish this in two weeks, so, talk to you later." Then she hangs up.
This is going to be awesome.
.
Erica won't tell him what she's going as, no matter how many times that he asks her. "Honestly, Stiles, you should have already figured this out," she tells him one day in the hallway when he's needling her.
"How am I supposed to have figured it out if you won't give me any hints and won't show me your costume? All you told me is that you're not wearing a wig because the character has had blonde hair some time in comics history. Which isn't exactly a big help because there are about six hundred and seventy-two characters in the history of comics that have had blonde hair."
"Think about it."
"I have thought about it."
Erica sighs. "You're Stiles and I'm your girlfriend. You're going as Batman. Who is Batman's girlfriend the majority of the time, when he's not screwing around with other women?"
She's already walking away when everything finally clicks.
"You wanna be Catwoman?" he shouts after her in the hallway. A few people turn around but most are used to him by now. "Then I'll be your Batman."
Erica turns around and smiles at him.
.
For two weeks Stiles doesn't see Erica outside of school because she's too busy working on her costume. "I'm sorry," she says one day after he asks her to get a coke after school. "But you've had months to work on your cosplay. I have two weeks. But after this we can hang out whenever, I promise."
And he actually totally gets it. So for two weeks it's all Scott-and-Stiles time (except when Scott is with Allison, but they don't talk about that since Stiles is still a little sore from the whole Scott-ditched-him-for-Allison) all the time.
Erica sends him picture of her progress though, and from the stores that she goes to when she can't make a piece of her costume. The fact that she's making everything by hand is honestly sort of mind blowing to Stiles, but it's awesome too.
She calls him when she's finished, and it's two days before they leave for Wondercon. "So are you going to send me a picture of you in the finished product?" Stiles asks her, and she laughs.
"No, this is like a wedding dress. It'd be bad luck to show you before the day of."
"Whatever you say. You've seen me in my costume."
"I know, I had to do some alterations on yours, remember?"
"Best girlfriend in the world," he tells her again, just like he had the day she'd come over and put the finishing touches on his suit as well.
"I only did it because I wouldn't want my Batman to be lame, but you're welcome."
"Still, best girlfriend."
He can hear her smile through the phone. "I know."
.
"You're positive that Erica has her own room?" Dad asks, for the millionth time, as he watches Stiles pack for the weekend. He doesn't seem too convinced on this point, but he hasn't looked too closely or done anything to stop it, so that's a win.
"One hundred and ten percent."
"It's really lucky that she found a room in the same hotel as you only a couple of weeks in advance..." the Sheriff tries again.
"Isn't it?" Stiles asks. Then he goes in for the kill. "Dad, do you really want to know?"
"I think I've figured it out. Just...be safe, okay Stiles?" He walks out of the room and Stiles thinks that's the end of it, before Dad comes back with a small box of condoms and places them in his bag. "Safety first," he says before walking out of the room, and a part of Stiles withers up and dies.
.
It's a five hour drive to Wondercon, and they can't leave until school is out, Erica's mom's orders. Stiles drives Erica to school that day and she put everything in the jeep so that they can leave as soon as possible.
Her mom's standing at the door when they leave, which Stiles finds kind of unsettling. But Erica doesn't say anything, just gives her mom a half-hearted wave before they drive off completely. "Are you ready for this?" he asks her, and Erica smiles.
"Are you kidding me, I was born ready."
School seems to last forever-forever-but then the last bell of the day rings and Stiles can get the hell out of there. Erica is in front of the jeep already, talking to Allison and Scott, but she sighs in relief when Stiles is close enough.
"Thank God you're here, we can go now. Sucks to suck, Scott," she says, laughing.
Scott rolls his eyes, but he's smiling too, and he and Allison both wave good-bye.
"So you are absolutely sure that you know where you're going," Erica asks him, and Stiles rolls his eyes.
"Duh, I can read a map. And there's this great new thing called a GPS just in case that method doesn't work. I have one of those in my phone."
"Just checking. My mom wanted to know because she's worried that you're going to kill me and throw my body out of the jeep."
"I'd totally bury your body first."
Erica snorts, face first into her phone. "I'm sure that will reassure her," she says. "Let me tell her about how considerate you are right now."
Stiles wants to ask what the deal is about her mom, but he decides in the end not to pry. The drive is five hours long, and if Erica wants to open up to him about it, she will. Besides, he understands what it's like to have a complicated relationship with parents; it's not like he and Scott talk about Mr. McCall that much either.
Thankfully the drive doesn't feel like five hours. They talk and blast Stiles's iPod and before long they're in Anaheim and having to find parking for the hotel.
"So, this is going to take some fast talking, but it should only take a sec. Stay in the car so that they don't know that there's more than one person staying?"
"This whole thing is very shady," Erica says, laughing, "but sure."
The hotel takes a lot of smooth talking and fast action, since Stiles is clearly not his dad and the reservations were made under the Sheriff's name, but after talking at the person manning the desk into exhaustion he gets the keys.
"Nice job," Erica says as they sneak into the side of the hotel, carrying all of their stuff. Their room is on the fourth floor and the stairs are exhausting despite all of the suicides from lacrosse, and Stiles is relieved when they finally get there.
What he's not relieved about is the fact that there's only one bed, even though Stiles had been pretty sure that he and Scott had reserved too. For a beat he and Erica stand in the doorway and stare at it, taking up at least half of the room and very white, before Erica shakes her head and takes a step forward.
"I'm starving," she says, as if she can shake off the awkward. "Let's go to dinner. I'll pay since you drove."
He almost, almost, makes a joke about sexual favors, but he finds that he can't do it with that bed staring them in the face. Awkward virgin, thy name is Stiles.
Instead he slings his arm around Erica. "Let's go then."
.
They don't get back to the hotel until two that morning, and when they do they're stumbling in and laughing. They walked what felt like the entire city and talked about everything all night. They hadn't been able to stop talking.
But back in the room all of a sudden it's quiet. Stiles thinks about the condoms that his dad put in his bag, the ones that he hadn't bothered to take out before blurting, "I'm just going to sleep on the floor if that's all right."
Erica frowns at him. "What? Don't be stupid. The bed's huge, it's no big deal. I trust you not to take advantage of me when I'm sleeping, or whatever."
"That's me, not advantage taker," Stiles says, but the joke falls a little flat.
Erica changes in the bathroom, coming out wearing a t-shirt and ratty sweatpants but it's still somehow one of the sexiest things that he's ever seen. He just hopes he doesn't have a boner in the morning.
"So," she says when she's staring at him.
"So."
"Big day tomorrow, I think we'd better get to sleep." Erica leans across the bed and kisses him lightly on the mouth once before turning her back to him.
.
The alarm that Erica set on her phone wakes them up that morning. Everything's a little blurry around the edges and Stiles yawns into his arm. The first thing that he notices is that he does not-thank God-have a boner.
The second is that Erica is yawning beside him, her hair the messiest that he's ever seen it which is saying something. "You need to get the bathroom first. I'm going to take longer than you to get ready," she informs him as though he hadn't already figured that. "I'll go get the free breakfast from the hotel. Do you want anything in particular?"
"A muffin would be great, thanks," he says and she nods, grabbing the hair tie she left on the side table and shuffling to the lobby without even changing.
His costume isn't hard to get into, especially not with the alterations that Erica made for him. Erica comes into the room, throws a muffin at him, and grabs the bag that she had specifically packed for her cosplay.
He eats the entire muffin and watches two reruns of Buffy before he knocks on the door. "What are you doing in there?"
"Stiles," Erica's voice comes out muffled by the door, "that is the last thing that you want to ask a woman when she's getting changed. Now go wait patiently like a good boyfriend before I put this stiletto up your-"
"Nope, I'm good. Backing away now. You can take however long you want."
He's halfway through another episode when Erica walks into the room, smiling. She's pleased with herself and he doesn't blame her at all. You couldn't tell that she'd only had two weeks to make her costume just by looking at it.
It's a mix of Nolan's Catwoman and the Catwoman from the comics. Her hair is free and blonde and in perfect ringlets, and her make-ups all eyeliner and red lipstick. The catsuit hugs every dip and curve in her body. Stiles is pretty sure that he's never seen her in such revealing or tight clothes before.
"What do you think?"
"You look gorgeous," Stiles manages to choke out after a moment.
Erica laughs and kisses his cheek, her lips thick with the wax of lipstick. "Come on, Batman, let's blow this popsicle joint."
.
People want their picture. A lot of people want their picture. Stiles isn't sure why he's surprised by that, but he is. Some just want the two of them, and Erica will put her lips next to Stiles's cheek and pose. Some want to get in between them and act in character, and those are the most fun.
A couple of guys just want pictures of Erica and try to make a move on her after, but she just laughs and grabs Stiles's arm before kissing his cheek. "I've already got my Batman, I'm good."
She reapplies her lipstick a lot that day.
Erica buys a couple of commissions of Stephanie Brown and Catwoman, and Stiles buys some vintage Batman comics. They wait in line for a couple of panels, and spend time wandering around the convention center.
In the end, Stiles is actually sort of glad that Scott couldn't come. The very thought smacks of betrayal-even though it's not, he and Scott are bros for life thank you very much-but it's true. Scott might be a geek but he's not as in depth as Stiles and Erica are. They would have had a great time, but this is somehow better.
He tells her that after they decide to leave the con that night, eating burgers and curly fries.
"I'm glad Scott couldn't come too," Erica says. "But don't tell him I said that."
"Wouldn't dream of it." He chews on the end of his straw before saying. "So what do you want to do after this? Save some citizens? Fight the good fight on rooftops?"
Erica suddenly becomes very interested in the paper that her burger is wrapped in. She smooths out the wrinkles, one at a time, before saying, "Can't we just go back to the room?"
Stiles's mouth goes dry.