A/N – I have a running plotline to this that I've been meaning to develop, but I was actually just having too much fun writing about day to day stuff. Also, there are requests for some Stiles moments, and I aim to please so they will definitely be included.
"All I'm saying, is that although you've been around werewolves almost your whole life, now that you are one you're going to need some training too!" Derek and the rest of the Pack had gathered to convince Stiles that this was necessary; but while he appreciated the effort, no one was volunteering to run his household errands for him while he wasted all of this time. The cleaning, shopping, laundry and bill-paying could not be accomplished any faster with wolfy super-powers.
"Der, I am already the very Yoda of Lycans. I researched them for years, and managed to tell even you things that you didn't know. Hell, I trained Scott when he first got turned, and it was pretty awesome teaching if I do say so myself. I know everything about us!"
Derek and Scott were shaking their heads. "Can you tell us one thing about werewolves you didn't learn in a book?" Scott asked.
"Yes. They tend to be total slobs."
Derek ground his teeth. "I mean about changing, about fighting, about using your abilities. If our Pack is ever attacked, which will always be a very real possibility, I need to know that you can take care of yourself and everyone else."
Stiles pouted and kicked a small rock with his shoe. "Is this really necessary?" he whispered to himself. He looked off into the distance, and even Derek couldn't tell what might be going through his mind.
"Fine. I'm just going to have to show you, aren't I?" Stiles sighed. The Pack all nodded warily.
"All right. Test me. But let me give you a small piece of advice: I don't want to hurt any of you, so don't… hold… back!" He folded his arms, and gave them a Glare that made Derek's worst seem like a myopic squint. His opponents all took an involuntary step back.
"Um…okay. First Lesson. You'll fight me, Scott, Jackson and Danny. Shift and attack, right now!" Derek ordered, a little nervously.
Stiles closed his eyes and opened them a second later, a hellish amber glow replacing his usual chocolate brown. He whipped his hands to the sides, and the claws shot to their full length. A deep reverberating growl came from a suddenly fang encrusted mouth.
"Holy shit-" Jackson muttered.
Stiles launched himself forward onto all fours, and in two loping bounds was plowing into Derek - who was so surprised and caught off guard that he hadn't shifted at all. Scott was a little quicker on the draw, and whipped his claws through the space Stiles' head occupied a second before. There was a tap on Scott's shoulder and he whirled around only to have Stiles slam his arm into his mid-section with the force of a wrecking ball. Scott flew backward, and his body crashed into Jackson. Their heads clunked together like coconuts, and they fell to the ground in a tangled heap. Derek was still lying on the floor dazed and human when Danny attacked his rampaging mate. Stiles grabbed Danny's shirt in his clawed hands, planted his foot in Danny's stomach and fell backward, launching a surprised Danny though the air to land on Derek's chest and knocking the wind out of both of them. Scott and Jackson were unconscious, and Danny was roughly turned over by a snarling Stiles who pressed his thumb claws into both his and Derek's neck, a hair away from severing their jugulars with a simple push.
"Yield or die!" he growled at them. There seemed to be no trace of the Stiles they knew in the glowing eyes.
"Sty! It's me!" Derek shouted.
Danny's eyes were wide and terrified. "Chill out, man! You got us, it's over!"
A blink later, and Stiles' eyes were chocolate brown once again. "Okay, next test?" He stood up and jogged over to where Allison, Lydia and Ted were serving up some bottled water. The whole ordeal had taken less than a minute.
Danny stood up and brushed himself off, groaning at the pain in his chest and limbs. He tried unsuccessfully to rouse Scott and Jackson who were out for the count.
Derek just lay there, and tried to fit this impression of Stiles into the memories of the past twenty years. It just didn't work. Stiles walked back over and sat next to him, handing him a bottle.
"Can I ask where in HELL you learned how to do that?" Derek coughed out when his breath started to come back.
"I think it was in the 'Liber Benandanti'. 'The Alpha is the most powerful form of werewolf, but its one weakness is the necessarily longer period of time it takes to transform. In any battle with a werewolf Pack, the Alpha should be taken out quickly and if possible while still in human form. This will demoralize the rest of the Pack and weaken them, sapping them of both strength and speed.' Don't feel bad, Der. If you had the chance to change, you would have totally kicked my ass."
Derek tried to ignore the little skip in Stiles' heartbeat at that last part. "You sounded just like Erik going off on one of his tangents. Remind me never to underestimate book-learning again."
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"Learning from books sucks." muttered Laurie. "I'd rather be out there, doing stuff. Like breaking laws of physics with our car! I bet I could soup up that engine and turn it into a real monster!" she said wistfully, looking out of the window of the school library.
"Then it would probably hide in the garage and not talk to anybody, and moan 'Why me? My life is ruined!' over and over again." It was pretty rude, but Erik always got that way when he was trying to concentrate. He had little patience with Laurie on the best days. Now he was reading a leather bound volume he'd 'borrowed' from his father's book case, hoping to become as expert on werewolf lore as he was on everything else…maybe even as good as Pop. As such, he was giving it all the concentration he could spare.
Laurie gave him a sour look. A quick glance around the library made her smile mischievously. "You keep your nose in that book, and you'll never figure out why Amy and Clarissa Barton keep staring at you."
Erik looked up, his concentration whipping away. He looked around for the Barton twins. Laurie stomped on his foot.
"Ow! What the hell did you do that for?" he growled.
"Don't stare! They're sitting by the computers in the corner." she hissed.
Erik nonchalantly stretched and yawned, looking towards the computer desks as he did so. He caught the eyes of the girls in question, who both giggled and turned away.
"I wish I could hear what they were saying." he said dreamily.
"You're kidding me, right?" Laurie gave him a withering look.
"Oh! Yeah right."
Concentrating, he focused on his hearing the way his Dad taught him, until the general noise level in the room seemed to get louder. Sorting through the babble of voices, he managed to single out the ones he wanted until the rest faded into the background.
"…him look over at us! I bet he comes over! I still can't believe how different he looks, or how tough everybody says he is now! He's definitely got some muscle too, look at the way that t-shirt fits! I told you, Amy it's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for! If he was on one of the varsity teams, I'd totally go out with him! But you can't get away with dating these loner types anymore…"
Erik let his hearing return to normal and went back to his book.
"What happened?" asked Laurie, bursting with curiosity. She was unwilling to call on her wolf even the little bit required to sharpen her hearing. Erik looked at her irritably.
"I'm not cool enough to go out with them. Apparently I have to play a sport and run around beating my chest with the other gorillas. The anthropological implications of these mating rituals are staggering-"
Laurie shoved him practically off his chair. "Do you ever want to lose your virginity? I thought that was every guy's A-1 priority!"
"I just don't believe in wasting time. If a girl wants me for some status/popularity thing, then the odds are a thousand to one she's not right for me. Besides, my wolf will tell me when I've met the right one. I like girls, but for all I know, I could be into guys and not even realize it."
Laurie stared at him. "You're going to let your wolf decide who and WHAT you date? Erik, that's crazy!"
"Is it? Our fathers have been together over 20 years, and they love each other as much as they did the day they got married. Both of them dated girls before they met each other, and those relationships turned out to be disasters. I won't rule anything out; if my wolf says 'that one's the one', then I'm going for it. I don't care who it is." He went back to his book.
"All I'm saying, is that you may have a hard time getting your 'true love' to look at you twice if you don't start acting a bit more…" she bit her tongue just a bit too late.
"You were going to say 'normal', weren't you? Laurie Hale, the girl who does everything the opposite of what people expect of her, is telling me I've got to be like everybody else?" Erik looked on the point of getting up and storming off. She put her hand gently on his arm, keeping him in his chair.
"Yes…because look where my individuality has gotten me. I'm alienated from my family, and in case you haven't noticed my door isn't exactly being broken down by friends and boyfriends either. If you want to 'get a little', you have to give a little."
Erik looked at her sadly. It was ironic really that their problems always seemed to be mirror images of each other. "Tell you what. I'll try out for a sport if you…just for one day…let go and have some fun with your wolf. Just give it a shot. I know how you feel about it, and I respect your opinion…but you're making hasty judgments with no information, and really cheating yourself out of an amazing experience. What do you say?"
Laurie wished she had just kept her big mouth shut and let Erik read his damned book. She really painted herself into a corner this time. If she refused, he was off the hook as well from all her prodding. If she agreed, he would have a better shot at having a real relationship…while she might turn down a path from which there was no return. Whose happiness was more important…her own or her brother's?
She opened her mouth to answer, sending the neural signals that would produce the word 'no'.
"Fine. I'll do it." she said instead, surprising them both.
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Stiles was finally allowed to return to his daily errands while the Pack went home to recover from their ordeal.
Allison and Lydia had sent him into the woods with one tool of his choice and given him three hours to set something up that would prevent them from capturing him. He could use anything in the environment, but nothing man-made besides the tool. Stiles took along a small hand saw and went off whistling. Three and a half hours later, Stiles was lowering a makeshift trapdoor lid (he'd crafted it out of Mountain Ash branches and wolfsbane) over a natural pit containing two furious female werewolves.
Ted and Danny elected to walk home after his 'Tracking' test so as not to smell up their car. Stiles had led them on a merry chase through the forest, looping back at hyper speed and leading them in circles until they finally caught up with him…or so they thought…and pounced on a suspicious looking mound buried under a pile of leaves. It turned out Stiles had ditched his clothing, using it to plug up the entrance to the den of some small animal. When they yanked the clothing free, one very pissed off skunk emerged and gave the two werewolves a good spraying. Shrieking at the trauma to their sensitive noses, the two ran back to the house to rage at Derek before taking off. Derek's crimson eyes could have put Rudolph the Reindeer's nose to shame. He stalked around in a transport of rage and waited for his mate to return.
Stiles, master of strategy that he was, walked back to the house wearing only his camouflage boxers which made Derek completely forget what he was about to scream at his mate for. This led to a much briefer chase, since Stiles wanted to be caught this time, and Derek found other ways to work out his aggression.
Jackson, perhaps wisest of all, simply played a round of five-card stud poker with Stiles, and lost only a negligible fifty dollars in cash. Then he went off with a newly awakened (but still groaning) Scott to find their wives and get away from the scariest werewolf of them all.
Stiles put in a fresh load of laundry, washed the remaining dishes in the sink and began to make preparations for dinner when Derek came up behind him and wrapped his arms around him tightly, kissing him on the back of the neck.
"That feels fantastic, Der. But you've put me really behind schedule today. There's a five pound bag of Yukon-Gold potatoes that is just begging to be peeled and cut up."
"You made me really proud of you, today. At first I was mad…but then I realized you're the perfect partner for an Alpha. Even after twenty years, I'm still finding out how perfect you are."
Stiles grinned. "How long do you think it'll be before the Pack forgives me?"
"I think it's more of an 'If' thing then a 'When'. I'm sorry I underestimated you." Derek pulled him closer, as if afraid he would leave.
"Derek, you had no way of knowing-"
"That's not what I mean. I never stopped looking at you as a kid that had to be protected from everything, most of all himself. I always held you back, trying to take on all the toughest challenges, like you were incapable of handling anything serious on your own. It's…part of the reason I never wanted to turn you. You can never be sure someone will survive…but I also wasn't sure you'd be able to handle it. That was so wrong of me…when I think back on everything you survived, I can't imagine I didn't see how tough you were. If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now…I'd still keep you human, because now I'm afraid of what I've unleashed."
Stiles chuckled. "Thanks. It's nice to hear you say it. I never felt I had to prove myself to you, though. And it was kind of nice not having to fight so hard for everything with you around…to be taken care of for a change. I can't be mad at you for not seeing something I deliberately hid…God Lydia and I were so much alike. Let's just call it even. That is, if you get started on the potatoes."
Derek gave him another kiss and then grabbed the first potato out of the bag. Extending a claw, he quickly spun the potato around and skinned it in one long winding strip.
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At 3:00, school let out and Laurie accompanied Erik over to the bulletin board that had the sign-up sheets for all of the school's sports teams. Erik scanned them, trying to figure out which one he would be able to tolerate the most.
"Basketball?" suggested Laurie.
"No."
"Lacrosse?"
"God, no. Then I'll have Uncle Scott and Uncle Jackson all over me. Maybe Tennis?"
"No one goes to the Tennis matches. Baseball?"
"Maybe. Football, no…Hockey, no…Soccer?"
"Stick to baseball. It's popular without being too aggressive. If you're getting shoved around a lot on a field, you'll flip out and kill someone. Then it's bye-bye car."
Erik scrawled his name on the sheet, then had a sudden thought. "Maybe I should just sign up for track instead…"
He went to cross out his name when Coach Fenton, who was also in charge of Erik's personal torture in P.E., happened to walk by. Noticing Erik, he squinted at the sheet.
"Hale? You trying out for baseball? Great, your Dad finally taught you how to play! He was one of the best players the school ever had, we were on the same team together a hundred years ago, it seems now. Come to think of it, anybody in your family that played a sport was a star. There was your Uncle Peter, who played Hockey and won us the championship, your Dad's sister Laura who won all those Track and Gymnastics medals…"
"My Dad played baseball?" Erik asked incredulously.
"Laura Hale was on the Gymnastics team?" asked Laurie.
Coach Fenton looked back and forth between them. "Yeah…I guess I can see why you don't know much about them, with…what happened and all. Erik, why do you want to try out if not because of your Dad? You never really seemed interested in sports at all before."
"Um…I guess I'm just trying to have the, um…whole, well-rounded…high school experience. Yeah." Erik's face turned red while he stammered.
"Well, tryouts are tomorrow, I look forward to seeing you there. Tell your Dad the game misses him. Or maybe I'll give him a call and have him come and see you! If you're half as good, the team is definitely going to make the finals! Boy, this made my day! See you then!" He left them, whistling 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game'.
"Okay, this is a disaster. And who do I have to thank for it?" Erik turned a yellow-eyed Glare on his sister.
"Oh, get over it Nerd-Boy." she snapped, signing her name on the sheet for Gymnastics.
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The call came when the family was just getting up from the dinner table. Erik and Laurie started on the dishes while Stiles cleaned off the table. Derek picked up the phone, and within minutes was laughing and joking with his old teammate. Then his face got serious.
"Erik wants to play baseball? You're kidding me! No, I really haven't…I mean, you know with my business and all…yeah, I'll definitely come see him tomorrow! Pointers? I'm not sure there's much I can teach him…I've never really seen him play! Well, yeah…we'll see. 3:30, I'll be there. Take care."
Derek hung up the phone. He turned to face his son, Glaring at him over folded arms.
"Erik Steven Hale, can you come in here please?"
Erik put down the dish he was washing, and approached his father while biting his lip nervously.
"Yeah, Dad?" he asked.
"When were you going to tell me?"
"Oh, um…if you don't want me to play, I understand…I'll tell the Coach tomorrow that I've changed my mind…" Erik trailed off, feeling a sense of relief.
"Not want you to play? Son, I cannot tell you how happy you've made me! My dream when I left High School and had to give up the game was to someday have a son that I could teach and go to his games and take to professional playoffs and watch them on TV every weekend! I guess I just gave up on the idea when I saw you were more like St-…um more like the studious type. Yeah." Derek caught himself too late; Stiles gave him a yellow-eyed Glare.
"I insisted your Dad not push you into anything you're not ready for. Erik, is this something you really want to do?"
Knowing that they would all be able to hear a lie, Eric said (quite truthfully) "I'll know more after I give it a shot."
Derek whooped for joy, and gave Erik one of those tight whirl-you-around-hugs he used to give Laurie all the time. Erik felt dizzy when his Dad put him down.
"I signed up for Gymnastics!" Laurie said suddenly.
Derek looked at her. "Really? That's amazing, it was Laura's favorite thing too. I already know you'll be spectacular at it from the crazy things you do around here." He hugged her, but did not whirl her around. She tried not to think too much about it.
"I don't know, Derek. Our kids may have been replaced by evil alien duplicates." Stiles joked, finishing up in the kitchen.
"Well, good because I like these guys better." Derek went upstairs to shower.
Stiles looked after him and waited until he was out of earshot. "And this weekend, Mr. Hale, I am SO going to be kicking your ass at baseball."