Stiles is almost running on auto pilot as he wipes his mouth on his shirt sleeve.
He's watching Kate flip her hair over her shoulder as he rolls up his flannel. She smirks at Gerard like a shark just as he rubs a thumb along the rune in the soft skin under his arm, right above his elbow. This one hurt like a bitch to get, but Stiles doesn't even reminisce in the pain now as he feels the ripple of slime rolling down his skin.
It happens quickly, the fading. He's done it before, of course, and he had squawked and squirmed uncomfortably as the ever present feeling of being covered in goop stayed with him. Now, the discomfort is a small price to pay to walk around undetected.
Kate laughs at some joke Gerard makes to the nurse and he sneers at them as he passes. They can't see it, but it makes him feel a bit better all the same. His fingers clench as he fights the urge to light a fire under their asses. All he can remember is Gerard's smile when he beat him up down in the basement, the look in his eye when he ordered the kanima on Allison, how Scott still shudders whenever he remembers the incident with the knife and his mom.
And Kate. Fucking Kate. "I was a kid," Derek's voice comes to his mind, "I- I was still recovering from Paige. And she made me feel like I wasn't so alone. I thought... I thought she loved me."
Stiles bites harshly into his lip to keep himself in . He can't do it here. He made a promise to Talia. This was such a bullshit plan from the start. Why did he agree to it? Stiles knew he wouldn't be able to do this, but he went along with it anyway because he's such an idiot.
The gift shop is at the front of the hospital. The doors don't even jingle as he opens them, sliding between people with a grace he doesn't normally posses. He swipes a disposable camera off of a rack near pink and blue teddy bears and stuffs it in his bag.
Stiles drops two crumbled dollar bills on the counter on his way out, because he's not a total douche bag.
Kate and Gerard are still signing forms when he passes them, so he stalks out to the parking lot. His hands feel like they're on fire, the power of his anger rippling right under his skin, but he just grits his teeth and digs his nails into his palms.
As soon as he's near Deaton's car, he rubs at the rune until it stops glowing and the slime feeling leaves him instantly. He's not about to go around driving a car invisible. (Scott and him had already tried that once and a poor old lady almost had a heart attack. Stiles had to act like he had just reached down to pick up a CD and his dad had been fighting a smile at him while he wrote him a ticket.)
He opens the door with more force than necessary and throws his bag in, dropping himself into the drivers seat. He slams the door shut, mentally apologizing to Deaton for taking his anger out on his car.
Once inside, he relaxes his hands and looks at the crescent shapes dug into his flesh. They're ringed red, looking only a step away from dripping blood all over him. Stiles fidgets slightly and reaches to his side, hiking his shirt up. His protection rune is still out of order, a large scar cutting into it. Deaton had taken out the stitches a few days ago.
Stiles doesn't even have to touch it to know it won't work anymore. If it had been, then he wouldn't have been able to hurt his hands.
Stiles reaches to the back of his shoulder, pawing around until he feels the familiar '4' shape with jagged lines and rubs it, focusing on his hands. The skin heals over instantly, like there weren't even cuts there to begin with.
Stiles fleetingly wonders why the timekeep severed his protection rune. If he was being sent back here on some stupid mission for the greater good or whatever, shouldn't he have been protected?
Maybe it interfered with its magic, or whatever. Like hell is he going to ask his mom about it.
Her face flashes in his mind, the hardness of her eyes as she saw his arms, and Stiles quickly shakes his head.
Had Talia known that Gerard was here? She must have, Stiles decides, remembering her face when Derek and him pulled up after he visited his mom. She must have just smelt cancer or something and went with it. Peter and Talia told him he was in town, and he had, what, just let it slip his mind?
Stiles lets his head slump against the steering wheel. How had he forgotten about Gerard? He's planned for everything else but he left himself a giant blind spot like him? Stiles isn't sure if he's an idiot, or just tired. Fuck, he's so tired. He's never felt this drained in his life, this exhaustion that just clings to him.
He feels tears prick at his eyes, but he hastily rubs them away. God, he just wishes his pack was here. Scott would clap him on the back and smile that fucking smile that seems to make everything okay, and he'd come up with some great plan to get rid of Gerard. He did it before. While Stiles was getting his ass kicked by the geriatric freak, Scott was doing some behind the scenes recon with Deaton.
Scott would be so much better at this than he is, Stiles thinks.
Kate and Gerard walk out of the hospital, laughing at something. Probably some "subtle" joke about hunting again. Stiles doesn't really care. He rubs at the tension built in his temples and tries to calm down.
He can't be stupid with this. He has Kate and Gerard right here. He needs to do something at least. He eyes the shape of the disposable camera sticking out of his bag, Peter's voice reminding him of their shitty plan.
Kate and Gerard get into their big black SUV.
Stiles waits until Kate is at the exit of the parking lot before putting his car into reverse. Fuck the plan. He's doing this his way.
Staying two cars behind, Stiles follows them for a few blocks. He tries to remain inconspicuous, but it's a bit hard when you're following two of the craziest hunters. He wouldn't be surprised if Kate noticed him a block back. Maybe she's leading him to some run down part of town so she can slit his throat.
The fire is still bubbling under his skin. He'll burn her before she can even touch him, he promises himself.
Except she doesn't drive to some abandoned building. She parks outside of an apartment complex. Stiles parks at the end of the street, hands almost shaking. He's going to do it. He's actually going to get rid of these sick sacks of shit.
But, only Gerard's door opens. The engine remains running and he can see Gerard wave at Kate. Stiles balks.
Of course, the one fucking time he has both of the Argent's together, they're going to split up.
He flicks the listening rune on his shoulder on and catches Gerard saying, "-ou be careful with your little pup, Kate."
"I have him well trained, don't worry. He's practically eating out of my hand."
"All the same. You have to remember that they're beast, and even the youngest of them can kill a thousand of us."
Kate must nod, because Gerard smiles and closes the door. Stiles glares at the SUV, watching as Gerard walks with a skip in his step toward the front door. They had to have been talking about Derek; acting like he's a fucking dog. Only Stiles is allowed to make dog jokes, and even then he gets cuffed on the head for it and dirty looks.
Stiles rubs his rune off, biting his lip. Kate starts the car and drives away, and Stiles only hesitates thirty seconds before following her. He catches the tail end of her bumper turning and speeds up to catch her. She drives two more blocks before parking outside of a cafe next to the ice cream shop he and his dad used to frequent.
Stiles quietly hopes that he doesn't run into his younger self again. He's awesome, but he knows that little him wouldn't be too great at this spy stuff.
He waits until Kate steps inside before thumbing his elbow. He shudders mildly at the feeling slithering down his body as he steps out of the car, dragging his pack over his shoulder.
Stiles still doesn't really understand how the rune works. If he touches large objects, they stay solid and opaque, but as soon as he touches something small, it disappears along with him. One time, they had to follow a group of hunters to their league of doom, and Scott and Lydia convinced him to scratch the rune into the bumper of his jeep. It worked fine once he activated it, but it didn't make Lydia or Scott undetectable. It looked like they were mermaid man and barnacle boy sitting in the invisible boat mobile.
In the end, it took an hour of arguing before Stiles got the brilliant idea to just draw the rune in a sharpie on their wrist. They lost track of the big bads, sure, but at least they learned a new trick.
Kate's ordering at the counter when he walks in. The bell on the door doesn't even jingle to alert his presence, and no one notices the door opening by itself.
Stiles finds a seat in the corner of the room and kicks it out, reaching into his bag for the camera. As he sits, he fiddles with it. He hasn't actually used a camera since his last school field trip, and even that one was digital. He winds it up and looks out through the small rectangle, squinting at the view.
Kate sits down at a table in the middle of the room, picking at the wrapper of her muffin. There are two coffees in front of her and she slides one across from her.
Stiles takes a practice shot as he waits. He vaguely hopes no one tries to sit on him, but the coffee shops is pretty deserted so he doesn't think too hard on it.
The door rings as it opens, and Stiles knew he was coming anyway, but his stomach drops as soon as he sees Derek's smiling face waltz in.
Stiles' breath still taste mildly of barf, but he can already feel his stomach churning for round two.
He snaps another picture almost blindly as Derek leans down. He assumes he kisses her cheek, wouldn't actually know because the awesome wallpaper next to him has captured his attention. It's some weird red and black pattern. Are those supposed to be flowers or sconces? He just doesn't know.
When he deems it safe to look back, Derek's sitting in the chair across from Kate and smiling at her. Stiles has seen this Derek smile a few times, not a lot since he's been kind of avoiding him and the Hales, except for Laura, but this is an entirely new smile. It's not even a flirty one, like when he had to distract the cop for Stiles in his own time. It's blissfully happy.
Stiles snaps a picture of that too, hating the way his hands seem to have grown clammy.
What happened to his righteous fury? He had felt like the world was going to end if he didn't tear Kate apart a few minutes ago. Now he just feels empty.
Empty and sad. He can see Derek and Kate's lips moving, but all he can hear is Derek, his Derek, carefully describing his sordid affair with Kate.
There's a ringing in his ear, but Stiles ignores it, captures Kate's hand holding Derek's as she grins at him.
She calls him "Sweetie," and Stiles closes his eyes because Derek's smile brightens at the pet name. He can't even tell that it's dripping in patronization.
Derek flips his palm up, holding Kate's hand in his, and his wrist twitches at the touch. Stiles knows what that means to werewolves. Peter had taunted him with that information once, right after he tore Cora's throat out.
"It's trust," Peter had laughed insanely, "Anytime we show our veins, it's a sign of trust. And you trusted me, Stiles, in that parking garage. It was a small trust, but you did. You let me lift your wrist and practically bared it to me. Yet, you had the audacity to say you wanted to be human."
And then his eyes had glowed red, like a promise, and the fangs in his mouth grew impossibly wide, and Stiles-
Derek brings Kate's hand to his mouth and smiles shyly as he places a chaste kiss to the back of her hand.
Stiles bolts to the bathroom.
He dry heaves into the toilet, nothing coming up because he only vomited not even twenty minutes ago. It's eerily quiet, his rune keeping him from making noise as he clutches at the toilet bowl. A yellow goop forces itself out of his mouth and Stiles shudders at the taste on the back of his tongue.
He flushes the toilet, grimacing at the swirling mess. The toilet's loud in the bathroom, his rune not affecting it.
Stiles slams open the door and runs to the faucet. He cups his hands under the water and gulps greedily. He should start carrying around a toothbrush, if this is going to be a reoccurring thing. God, he's going to have an ulcer by the time this is over.
His mouth tastes like ass, so he keeps drinking water, and it runs down his chin and splashes on the front of his shirt.
After a few minutes, Stiles turns the faucet off, his breathing harsh. He grits his teeth and clenches his eyes, throws the memory of Peter as far away as he can. He's gotten really good at this repressing emotions thing, but for some reason he just can't shake it this time.
It's not like Peter had even gotten close enough to bite him. The pack burst through the door right after Stiles yelled. It wasn't until later that everyone found out that Derek had transferred his alpha title to Cora when he saved her. Not even Cora knew, but Peter did.
Once Derek killed Peter, he became the alpha again, and Lydia made sure they buried Peter right. She cut him in half herself, Stiles standing close to and offering emotional support. It was very cathartic.
Stiles grabs some paper towels to dry his face, patting his shirt and chest dry as well. His mouth feels almost normal now, but he's still going to take a bath in mouthwash as soon as he gets back to Deaton's. The camera's on the bathroom floor, thrown there in his mad dash to the toilet.
He picks it up, sighing. A white bubble above the dial tells him he has thirty four more shots to get Kate sent to jail. Stiles really misses the plan where he just killed her and Gerard and called it a day.
Back out in the shop, Kate's leaning close to Derek with her hand on his thigh. Stiles takes a picture, makes sure to get her face in it. He hates how Derek's cheeks flush, hates even more how he has to take another picture as she rest a kiss on his cheek with a smirk.
Voyeurism has never been his thing. At least he literally has nothing else in his stomach at this point. He thinks that if he vomits again then his throat may just come out instead of puke.
Stiles can't stay in the store anymore, he feels like he's being suffocated by the image of Kate and Derek, so he just leaves. Kate's car is parked across the street, and he gets a great idea.
Why go down for just being a creepy bitch? Why not go down for being a creepy psychotic bitch?
He makes sure the car is out of sight line from the cafe windows before he walks over. It's locked, of course, so he rubs his thumb over his right wrist. It glows as he presses his arm flush against the trunk of the SUV.
His locking rune has always been handy, he thinks, as he hears the telltale click of the car. The back lights flash as it whirrs open automatically, and Stiles smirks.
Hunters are so predictable. The guns aren't even hidden, they're just laid out in the open. If Kate didn't have her windows almost blacked out, then she would have gotten pulled over for this a while ago.
Stiles takes three pictures of the trunk from various angles, trying to get all of them in the shot. Some of them have to be illegal, right? Even Chris didn't have registration on all of his guns, but he got away with it because he was a licensed gun dealer. Is Kate one too?
Whatever. The investigation will be enough to slow her down from skipping town, at least.
He puts the camera back in his bag and starts rooting around in the trunk. Like hell is going to leave- Ah, found them. The wolfsbane bullets are in the same box Scott described years ago, with the familiar plant etched into the wood. He shoves it and other two boxes, different strands, he thinks, into his bag.
There's a jar in another bag, and he only has to peak at it before he knows exactly what it is. Humans can use mountain ash. He knows that, has read studies in the differences between a sparks use and a humans use multiple times, but he's never actually seen a hunter carry the stuff. Is this how she locked the Hales in the basement in Stiles' time?
Stiles doesn't risk it and drops it in his bag too. He can always use a bit of mountain ash.
There's nothing else that he thinks he needs in the bags, but he finds a piece of paper with a phone number on it. C.A., it says, followed by a San Diego area code.
Chris Argent? Stiles puts the number in his crappy phone with a question mark after it, just incase. Chris and Allison were the only two hunters who played by the rules in his time. Chris might be good to have as an ally. Victoria could end up being a problem, though.
Stiles tries to put everything back as he found it. It's pointless, since it's only a matter of time until Kate realizes she's missing all of her wolfsbane bullets. She shouldn't be hunting right now, so maybe she won't notice.
Stiles hopes she doesn't notice, if what Peter said about her moving her plans up if she feels threatened being true.
He closes the trunk and presses his left wrist against the door, hearing the whirring and the clicks as it locks again. He tugs on it, just to make sure it's locked.
The coffee shop door opens and Kate walks out, Derek trailing behind her. Stiles scrambles for his camera and snaps a picture, just as she grabs his hand.
Kate wraps her free arm and his chest and pulls his body flush against hers, her grin saying more than words really can. Stiles takes another picture, teeth grinding together so hard he may chip a molar.
She leads him into an alley and Stiles feels sick but he follows after them, camera poised like some sick peeping tom.
She's holding Derek against the wall, leg hiked up over his hip as she kisses him. Derek's arms are wrapped around her waist, holding her close to him and Kate pulls away to laugh, breathless as her hand slides down his body.
Stiles takes more pictures, but all he can see is his Derek's face anytime someone brought up the name Argent.
Stiles feels disgusted as he takes another picture. Fuck Derek. Snap. Fuck the timekeep. Snap. Fuck Kate Argent and her crazy family. Snap. Fuck himself for getting involved in all of this. Snap.
Fuck this crazy, psychotic, bitch and her brilliant plan to manipulate an emotionally vulnerable sixteen year old boy.
Derek moans, "I love you," as Kate plays with his zipper, and Stiles is done. He's so done, it's not even funny.
The wind picks up before he even thinks about it and it pushes at Kate, insistently. Her hair flies around her as he forces her to take a step back. He wants to slam her against the wall until her head bleeds, but he barely manages to reign himself in. Stiles stops as soon as Derek and Kate's confused eyes meet each other, pulling in air through his teeth as he fights the urge to hurt her.
He turns around, just as Kate gathers herself again and smirks, "I love you too, sweetie."
Stiles doesn't care that there are still eighteen blank frames on his camera. He throws it in his bag and stalks past Kate's truck. There's a deep moan from the alley and Stiles reaches into his pocket blindly, pulling out his pocket knife. He flips it open and jams it into her tire, not even smiling as the air hisses out.
Once he's back in the car, he rubs his rune away. As he's pulling out of the parking space, he calls Laura on his cellphone.
He may need an alibi after all.