Keep Walking
until it gets easy
"You didn't—" Stiles begins, and Jackson shakes his head a bit, tightening his hold on Stiles, and hiding his face on the curve of his neck.
"I held him down until he died" he whispers against Stiles's skin, "I could have… But… I would have bitten you. I would have. And you don't want it."
Stiles doesn't really know what to do with his feelings right now. It's… he can't stop to analyze it. He can't really look at Jackson and say 'I'm proud of you' or some such crap, because hell, they've just outlived an Alpha Pack because of a plan Peter Hale concocted and made the Argents help. And Jackson didn't do something because of Stiles.
He… he can't help it. Stiles starts laughing, loud and bright. Jackson steps away from him a bit, eyeing him strangely – not quite hurt, but uncertain – and Stiles stares at him, looks around for a bit – Peter staring at him amusedly, Derek glaring at the Argents, Allison staring longingly and brokenly at Scott, Isaac checking Scott for injuries, Scott looking down, Danny sitting on the ground with his head between his knees, Chris looking sour as a lemon – and taking all of that in, Stiles laughs.
There are four bodies in front of the Hale house. One more in the woods.
And they – are – all – alive.
"Fucking hell, we're alive" he says, still laughing, and Jackson shakes his head before saying anything.
"Yeah, we kind of are."
Maybe it's the heat of the moment. Maybe it's the surviving thing. Maybe it's because for once Stiles actually gets what Lydia sees in Jackson, him not doing something that could get him exactly what he wanted just so Stiles would get what he wants, maybe it's everything tied into a single, huge knot of happiness, but he closes the small space between them, and kisses Jackson.
He really kisses him. Clumsy at first, because Jackson is taken by surprise, and lets out a small oof when Stiles presses into him, and then they are holding each other tightly, Jackson's mouth cold against his lips, breathing labored, and Stiles is still chuckling a bit.
They break apart when they hear Allison's exclamation of surprise, and when they look at her, she's wide-eyed and looking confused.
"Lydia knows" Stiles says, "She totally knows."
Allison doesn't look as if she has an answer, and smiles uncertainly at them.
Jackson pulls Stiles to his side again, arm possessively on his waist, and for once, Stiles doesn't care.
They made it.
The elation comes to a small stop when he hears Chris Argent's voice, though.
"We came here because what we did was wrong. What Gerard did was unacceptable, and we had to pay somehow. But this is as far as we'll ever go. We won't come after you if you don't harm any humans. We follow the code, but this is it. We are not allies. We are not friends. And your pack" he stares at Derek angrily, "will stay away from my family" he demands, and Derek's eyes flash red briefly, as he takes a step towards Chris, staying precisely between the hunter and his pack.
"Just as long as you stay away from mine" he says angrily.
Argent nods, and turns around to leave. Allison is still staring at Scott, who is looking at her with hurt and uncertainty, but then he looks down and away, and Allison takes a small look at all of them before following her father.
The SUV disappears among the trees, and it's like all of them can breathe again.
"Can someone please tell me WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?" Scott demands suddenly, looking completely freaked out, and Stiles can't really blame him.
He actually thinks he's kind of in shock too.
"What happened is that I saved all of you" Peter points out smugly, "Allison wanted to pay her debt to the pack, and she did it. The Alphas are dead, no one will bother us for a long while, so we can actually grow to be a pack at some point. The poison will be found in their bodies, and it'll look like a mass suicide, if we manage to clean the arrows and our presence from here fast enough."
"Poison? That's what was in the arrows?" Stiles asks, and Peter nods at him, "Okay, but that is way potent."
"It is. A special recipe."
"What if the Argents use it against us?" Isaac asks then, looking just as freaked out as Scott.
"They can't. It needs the blood of a werewolf freely given to work like this, to bind the components right."
"That sounds made up. What if they use just blood of a werewolf?"
"It won't work."
"Are you sure?" Stiles persists, and Peter looks at him with an eyebrow raised.
"Sure, you have a spark that creates mountain ash, and yet you now doubt that, for a magical poison to work, the blood needs to be freely given? You are mated to a werewolf, Stiles. Do keep up with the subtlety involved in the supernatural aspects of your life, please."
"Sorry" he answers, looking at Jackson briefly, seeing he's smirking.
Asshole.
"Can we go home now?" comes Danny's voice, small and a bit muffled, from where he's still hiding his head in his arms, crouched down, "I think I need a week of sleep after this. And never, ever again tell me anything that can lead to a sudden death. Or this much killing. Never, ever again."
Stiles can't help but laugh at that, and Danny raises his head just the tiniest bit, glaring at him. He bites his lip to stop from laughing more, and goes over Danny, to offer him a hand up.
"You kids go home. Derek and I will make sure the bodies are found in a proper way" Peter commands, and all of them stare at Derek, only leaving when he nods.
When they are all in Stiles's Jeep – Jackson by his side, Danny, Isaac and Scott in the backseat, Stiles takes a deep breath.
"You know, I really feel like watching Supernatural right now."
"Jesus, Stiles. All I want to do is curl up in bed and watch, I don't know. Something with no monsters. No killing. No violence" Danny comments, and Stiles snorts, looking at him through the rearview mirror.
"Where's the fun in that?" he asks.
"Third season. The best season" Jackson says, and Stiles smirks a bit.
"Second. But the third was close, I mean that episode in the prison? With all the demons and the FBI and stuff? That's awesome. It doesn't beat Sam dying, though."
"Too much… angst" Jackson replies.
"Aw, Jackson can't deal with his fanboy feels" he taunts, and Jackson growls at him.
Stiles laughs back and just keeps on driving.
He leaves Danny at his house, and Scott and Isaac at Scott's.
And then he and Jackson go back to his place, make a lot of popcorn, throw themselves on the couch, and watch Supernatural.
Life is good again.
X
The bad thing about his dad knowing the whole thing with the werewolves is that Stiles feels obligated to tell him what exactly happened that afternoon.
He is, then, grounded till the end of the summer.
He flails about a bit, exclaims that it's unfair, and how exactly is he going to be grounded, when there's Jackson?
The fact that he uses this mate-situation to his advantage like this tells the Sheriff that everything is going to be okay eventually. After that, they negotiate the grounding down to a week.
Stiles can't even seem to respect that, because Scott comes calling the very next day.
Jackson had left his house as soon as the Sheriff came home that night. Stiles sent him away with a small kiss, and a warning to not show up until he called, because he was going to tell his dad about Peter's plan, and things could go really bad, really fast. Jackson looked worried, but then he left.
They were making progress.
He had dinner with his dad, told him everything, discussed his punishment for, you know, endangering his life, and not telling his father about it, and then went to bed, exhausted.
The sun isn't even out yet when Scott comes calling through his window.
"I need your help" the boy says, and Stiles looks at him, unimpressed. Those are never good words coming out of Scott's mouth.
"What did you do now?" Stiles asks, hiding his head under his pillow. He doesn't really want to know.
"I need to… clear things with Allison. Really… clear things with her. And I don't know how to do it, because her dad still wants me dad, and I can't just show up at her house, or call her! I don't know what to do!"
Stiles takes the pillow off his face at that moment, and stares at Scott.
"What do you mean with clear things, Scott? Isaac is your mate."
He doesn't really want to think about how that word sounds now – a full explanation, as if it's all that needs to be said at any time to make things make sense between two people.
Mate stopped being something intangible that he couldn't even grasp to something he's using to explain things.
It's all very confusing.
"I know. And that's why I need to do this, Stiles! Last time we talked, I said I'd wait for her! Give her time!"
"But you already knew Isaac was yours by then!" he exclaims, sitting up in bed, and staring at Scott as if he grew fifteen heads, because two just wouldn't be enough.
"I was kinda… ignoring it all until it went away" Scott mumbles, and Stiles stares at him for a full minute, before starting to laugh, almost hysterically, again.
Oh god.
"And now you want to… explain this to her. Dump her, not let her stay hung up on you, because you need to make things work with Isaac."
Scott nods, looking like a lost puppy, and Stiles sighs loudly.
"Okay… how about this. I'll call her later, ask her to meet me, and I tell her about me and Jackson and the whole mate thing, and then… you come and tell her about Isaac. This way she'll know what's going on before you actually break the news to her."
"We can't be seen together."
"I'll call her here, then. Jackson is going to freak out" he mumbles as he gets out of bed.
Again, he's ignoring the way he just factors his mate into things now.
Scott hangs around for a few more minutes, and then he leaves, telling Stiles he had to go meet Deaton. Apparently, he's the official go-between with Deaton and Derek.
He makes himself some breakfast, eats it quickly, and then wanders up to his room again, taking out his cellphone.
"Early" it's the answer he gets from Jackson, and Stiles smirks a bit. He's kind of a jerk, after all.
"I know, but I need to talk to you about something. Then you can go back to sleep."
"What is it?"
"Scott needs to talk to Allison about a few things, I told him I would talk to her first. You know, the whole him and Isaac thing. It's going to be complicated for her, so…"
"You and Argent? Alone? No way in hell, Stiles, that girl is insane!"
He can hear Jackson moving around, probably getting up, and sighs.
"Look, she had just lost her mom. I'm not saying we invite her to be the godmother of our children, I'm just going to talk to her, and then Scott will explain everything, and we'll never have to talk to her again."
Jackson is awfully quiet on the other side of the call.
"Jackson?" he calls, and hears a strangled noise as answer, "Jackson?"
"Our children?" the other boy says, and then it's Stiles who's quiet.
He didn't see that one coming.
"It's just… It's an expression, Jackson.
"Our children. You said our children. Oh, man, you want to have my werewolf babies!"
And now he's laughing. Jerk.
"Shut up!"
"Ha, no! If we get a surrogate, we're using my sperm, I'm so not dealing with your ADHD in a werewolf."
"Jackson, focus on the Allison thing, ok? She's coming over this afternoon. I'll call you after."
"I don't like this" the other boy says, even if Stiles can kind of hear him laughing a bit.
"Just… trust me, okay?"
There are a few seconds of silence.
"Okay."
And in the end, it is as simple as that.
X
He's just finished cleaning up the kitchen after a quick lunch when Allison knocks. She looks worn out and sad, depressed in a way he knows way too well, because he's been through that.
Well, not really that, because while his mom didn't kill herself, he didn't try to kill all of his friends either.
She smiles a bit when he invites her in, and she sits on the couch, nervously looking around.
"So… is this a… pack thing? My dad seemed to be under the impression that you'd be the one to talk to me about an alliance or something."
"No, it's not a pack thing. I haven't even talked to Derek since yesterday afternoon" he starts, sitting on an armchair facing her, "It does have to do with werewolves, though."
Allison nods, and looks down. Her nails are all bitten to the point of bleeding, and she looks at once defeated and aggressive.
"Did you talk to Lydia before she left?" he asks, because he has no idea where to start this conversation.
Allison shakes her head no.
"We didn't talk again after…" she trails off, risking a glance at Stiles. He looks down for a bit, nervous.
"Jackson bit me that night" he starts, and Allison starts looking suspicious.
"I know. I was there."
"Well, that was… It was a claiming bite. I'm Jackson's mate" he lets that sink in for a moment before continuing, "It has nothing to do with liking someone. It doesn't have to do with compatibility, as far as we can see, because if he could have chosen anyone else in the universe, I think he'd rather be the mate of a Slitheen than mine, and yet, I'm it for him. Lydia was pretty messed up with it. She left because Jackson wouldn't see her the few days after the whole thing. He didn't even say goodbye, and, honestly, if we weren't being threatened by those Alphas until literally yesterday, I think we would have just killed each other. But being near death gives one some perspective, so we're… on our way to being fine now."
Allison keeps quiet, just staring at him, blinking hard, and Stiles has to look away.
This is so bad.
"It's permanent and instinctual. It's not a choice they are given, it just happens. It's… really, no one's fault, and mostly, the werewolf can control it, unless you're as messed up as Jackson is, but eventually, they can't ignore it anymore. It's… the way they are" he explains in quiet voice, and looks at Allison again.
Her eyes are red, and she wipes a tear as soon as it falls, trying to hold all the others in.
"I'm not his mate, am I?" she asks in a broken voice, and Stiles can only shake his head.
"It's… it's Isaac" he says quietly, and she looks down again, twisting her hands nervously for a bit, and taking a few deep breaths, "He wants to talk to you, but your father…"
"I don't want to" she says, with a forced smile, getting up, "I… I honest to God can't deal with this right now. I just can't. Tell him… Tell him I wish he's happy" she ends up saying, already going to the door.
"Allison" Stiles calls, wanting to say something, so something, anything, to make this better, or at the very least, less awful.
"Goodbye, Stiles" she says, already getting out of the door.
He locks it after her, and takes a deep breath. A squeak on the stairs makes him look up, and he sees Jackson coming down – obviously having been hiding in his room while they talked.
The blond doesn't really say anything, he pulls Stiles to an embrace, and he lets it go, holding his mate back.
"I don't want her to suffer like this" Stiles says, and Jackson nods – both of them know they aren't talking about Allison.
They have something very important to fix.
And this time, they'll do it together.
All the feels from now on.
Hehehehe.
REVIEW!