Prompt: You just moved in next door and you're convinced your house is haunted so you seek refuge at my house when you get freaked out and eventually rope me into investigating for paranormal activity and the only reason I'm doing any of this is because you're really freaking cute AU
Characters: Darcy Lewis & Stiles Stilinski
Tags: Humor, Friendship, Stiles Can't Deal With Ghosts, Darcy Can't Either

Darcy loves her home in California for two reasons. One is because the neighborhood is home to numerous elderly couples, so the noise volume and drama is pretty non-existent. (You know, not including the cute gossiping ladies that Darcy can't help but adore. At least their gossip isn't really a big deal). And two because the house next door has been empty for the last year Darcy's been settled down here. She likes her solitude, especially after spending a couple years of running around with superheros and scatter-brained scientists.

But now, now someone's decided to move in next door and Darcy's not quite sure what to think. On one hand, the rather lean, attractive guy is around her age. But on the other, he's around her age which means noise and drama and everything Darcy wasn't too keen on being surrounded by. (But hey, at least he has some really attractive friends as well).

Within the first week, Darcy learns her neighbor goes by Stiles because his first name is such a travesty that even he still has trouble pronouncing it. He has a close knit group of friends, but they're scattered all over the place and he's living on his own rather than moving back in with his Father. They share the bare minimum of what they do for work- Darcy the Social Media Queen for California's branch of Stark Industries and Stiles a rookie agent with the FBI. They don't necessarily hang out together, but they do greet each other whenever they see one another, so Darcy's a bit surprised when Stiles knocks on her door one evening and practically invites himself inside her home.

"Hey, uh, it's cool if I hang here for a bit. Right? Promise I won't stay long." He seems jittery and a little paler than normal, and his eyes keep darting all over the place. Normally Darcy would be suspicious about this type of behavior, but after running a background check on him via the Black Widow she knows that he checks out as A-Okay.

"Um. Sure. I was just about to have some pizza. Do you-"

"Yeah, yeah. Sounds good."

Darcy watches Stiles immediately search out her kitchen, he making himself right at home. He goes through the process of serving himself something to drink and she can only watch on in slight amusement. "Everything good there, Stilinski?"

He nods rapidly, water dribbling down his chin. "Mhm." Stiles is quiet for the duration of gulping down his water, Darcy then leaning against the counter and crossing her arms over her chest. Something's up and it's best if she waits him out. He'll talk soon enough.

Stiles seems to be working on autopilot as he distractedly grabs up a slice of pizza, he cramming half of it in his mouth without a word. He gets down two entire slices and another glass of water before sighing and cracking. Then seeking out Darcy, he finds her staring at him with an eyebrow raised in amusement.

"So, uh, I think my house is haunted."

Darcy scoffs. "What?"

"Haunted. I didn't think too much about it at first because I'm used to weird, but.. well," he trails off nervously. "I heard children giggling. Children giggling. There are no kids near us, Lewis!"

"Oh. You're serious."

"Duh!"

"Huh." Darcy falls silent, she shrugging a moment later. "Well. If you bring anything into my home, I'll stab you with a fork. Repeatedly."

That startles a laugh out of Stiles, he eventually cracking a grin as his shoulders slump. Then shaking his head slowly from side to side, he says, "Thanks for being so worried about my well being."

"You got it, dude. Now calm down and help me finish this pizza. If I eat it all by myself I'll only regret it later.

It's another two days before Stiles drops by unannounced, this visit being after midnight. He's got a blanket thrown over his shoulder and a pillow tucked under his arm, and Darcy can only gape at him as she subtly tries to pull down the hem of her tank top and mentally will her boxers longer.

"Uh.."

"The giggling has turned into grown man moans, and not the fun type of moans either, and something keeps pulling my blanket off the second I drift off to sleep."

"Say no more." Darcy lets the door swing open and she steps back so Stiles can enter. "Spare bedroom's upstairs and to the left."

"You're a lifesaver."

"Mhm. You can thank me in breakfast foods. Or I tell everyone about your Jimmy Neutron jammies," she says as he brushes passed her while shutting the front door.

Stiles glances down at his pajama pants and shrugs. "Right now I'm more annoyed of whatever's in my house to take that threat seriously, but I'll make you breakfast, lunch and dinner if you let me crash me here until everything's resolved at my house."

"Whatever, you big baby. I already told you where the room is. Now march!" She orders, pointing up the stairs. "I'm tired, you're tired and we both got work in the morning."

Darcy's placed the last of the cameras around Stiles' home, she sighing and making her way back to the living room (or Control Center as Stiles dubbed it). Plopping down on the sofa, she grabs up a carton of curly fries from the coffee table and pops a fry into her mouth. "So tell me again why I'm helping you hunt these so called ghosts?"

Focusing on connecting the cameras to several laptops set up around the room, Stiles tells her, "Because I dropped this on you when you were half asleep, you called me cute and said anything for you, moles before passing out, and to help me prove to my friends that my mind isn't playing tricks on me." Darcy snorts, but doesn't deny the cute comment. She had a tendency to babble when half asleep or very drunk.

Clicking away on keyboards, Stiles continues to babble himself. "You'd think after running around with werewolves that I'd be used to this kind of stuff, but nope. Ghosts are on a completely different level."

Darcy snorts, but then her grin falls when his words register. "Wait, what?"

After a moment, Stiles glances over his shoulder. "What?"

"You said werewolves."

His eyes subtly widen. "No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did," Darcy huffs a laugh. "You said that after running with werewolves you should be used to this stuff, but you weren't."

"I- I didn't-" He stammers and then sighs when Darcy just stares at him with a knowing look. "Fine." His shoulders slump in defeat. "Werewolves are real. I, um, I might actually be part of a Pack." Nervously scratching the back of his head, Stiles refuses to meet Darcy's eye.

Well shit. Darcy did not think he was actually serious. Or, you know, spill that secret so fast.

There's a minute of awkward tension before she decides to throw caution to the wind, she shrugging it off as if it were no big deal and popping another curly fry in her mouth. After chewing it and swallowing, she casually throws out, "Well, I gotta say I didn't see that coming, but I guess it shouldn't really surprise me after battling aliens in Greenwich."

"..what?"

"And being best friends with another alien. Thor is like a puppy."

"Wait, WHAT?!"

"Mhm. You're friends with werewolves, I'm friends with Avengers. Deal." Stiles gapes and then blinks rapidly, Darcy cackling at his expression. "That's what you get, loser. Don't dump major news on me and I won't dump major news on you."

"But.. but.."

A door slams somewhere in the house and Darcy jumps to her feet, curly fries falling. Though she's quite nervous for what the night's got in store for them, she's glad for the distraction from having to tell Stiles all about her friendships with superheroes.

.xXx.

The later it gets, the more creepy things get.

Doors are either creaking open or slamming shut, startling both Stiles and Darcy to stick close to one another. Curtains billow out as if air is being blown behind them, but all the windows are shut tight. There's children giggling and then what sounds to be a grown man's muffled voice coming from somewhere in the house. But it's the footsteps from above that prompt Darcy and Stiles to actually get up and investigate.

"I swear to Thor, Stilinski, that if I die tonight my ghost will latch onto you and haunt you until your dying breath."

They're slowly creeping through the upstairs level, Darcy practically clinging to Stiles' arm as they walk side-by-side.

"Always so nice, Lewis. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you actually meant that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I know you're hot for this bod," Stiles murmurs, gesturing up and down his form. Darcy snorts, but doesn't deny a word. "What, no- ow!"

"What?!"

"What do you mean what?" Stiles huffs, rubbing the right side. "You pinched me."

"I pinched..?" Darcy mumbles, stopping in the middle of the hallway and clinging tighter to Stiles. With wide eyes, she turns to him. "I didn't pinch you," she murmurs, heart beating faster. "My hands are right here." And to emphasize just where her hands are at, she squeezes his left bicep where she's been clinging to the entire time.

Stiles gulps. "Then if you didn't, who-"

"Boo."

Darcy screams and Stiles yelps, the both of them jumping in fright and clasping on to each other, hugging each other tight while their cheeks are pressed together. Just behind where they once stood now hovers an apparition. It's not what Darcy expected a ghost to look like, it glowing an ethereal blue while it's eye sockets are just two black voids. It's obviously male, maybe in his early 60s, and he doesn't look the teeniest bit happy to see them there.

"Stiles, do you- do you-"

"Yep. I see-"

The ghost's mouth drops open further than a person should be able to open it and a ear splitting shriek comes forth. Darcy and Stiles scream in fear, and just as they turn around to book it towards the stairs the both of them get shoved hard enough fall and slide across the floor. They come to a stop just at the top of the staircase, and they're both quick to scramble to their feet and run downstairs.

They blow passed the living room in favor of throwing open the front door and nearly fall to their knees in the front yard. Panting for breath, they face the house once more only to see all the lights flickering on and off inside.

"That.. is definitely not good," Stiles blurts.

"No shit." Digging out her phone from her back pocket, Darcy is thankful that the screen didn't crack. "That ghost is not your average Casper," she mumbles while scrolling through her contacts. "We need help."

"Yeah?" Stiles wonders, glancing at her and seeing the phone in hand. "Who you gonna call..?"

"My sister. Half sister, actually. She deals with all.. this." She waves in the house's direction after finding her sister's name, she pressing it and then putting the call on speaker.

It rings three times before someone picks up.

"Jillian's Crematorium. You ghost 'em, we roast 'em."

Stiles snorts and Darcy rolls her eyes. "Funny, Holtzmann. Love you, miss you, but I actually called because my neighbor has a ghost problem and the ghost literally just knocked us on our asses."

There's a moment of silence and then, "That's.. awesome. Send me the address and I'll get the team together for a ghost bustin'."

So yeah, I obviously wrote this one while watching Ghostbusters and I couldn't pass up linking the movie to this crossover somehow.