Liam and Parrish's chapter! I hope you all enjoy this one even though it's short!

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.


Liam landed on the floor with a grunt.

"You know said," Parrish, "Lydia was better at this than you are." He sounds amused.

"Yeah, well, Lydia is awesome," said Liam getting up. He takes a few moments to drag himself back into control. Sparring is never easy for him.

Parrish gives him his moment but then grinned like he is even more amused at what Liam chose as is defense for his lack of skills. Liam ignores it because really he doesn't have any other defense.

"Come on," said Parish as he settles back into a stance. Liam copies him and they go again. It's not easy; Parrish is a smart, trained fighter and he has more strength than a werewolf, enough to leave bruises.

Liam ends up on the floor again and growls but clenches his fists and takes a couple of deep breaths.

"Okay," said Liam when he had calmed down. "I've been sparring with you for like three weeks now and I'm wondering."

"Wondering what?" Parrish asks as he hauls Liam to his feet.

"I've seen you fight as a hellhound and it's not like this. You don't uses CQC."

Parrish shrugs and frowns. "Instinct I guess. That's the way the hell hound fights. I don't have claws or fangs as a human so I don't fight like I do."

Liam contemplates this and then says, "How about we make a deal, I teach you how to fight as a hellhound, you teach me how to fight with CQC and we both figure out how to merge them?"

Parrish lets out a startled laugh. "Is that your way of saying I suck as fighting as a hellhound?"

Liam opens his mouth and then closes it and looks sheepish because while Parrish is not awful he's not exceptional either. Parrish laughs properly and then holds out his hand and they shake on it.


It's get bad enough that they both spar in just shorts because Liam is tired of having his clothes burnt and Parrish is as well. There's only so much times he can sew up the slashes with black thread and pretend it's a new style.

(He's so far from emo too that his parents would probably start getting worried about him if it continues. The scent of smoke clinging to his clothes probably won't help either.)

Still they make progress. Working with Parrish is difficult. He's himself, but his instincts are deeper and older than Liam's so getting him to use them with some sort of direction is like trying to pull a train this way while it's intent on going in the other direction.

Liam gets plenty burning claw marks but eventually his greater control (oh the irony) allows him to run circles around the hellhound in a semi-serious fight.

(Liam's pretty sure in a serious fight he'd be dead. They've discovered first hand how hard it is for him to heal hell fire.)

But in sparring Parrish is forced to use his instincts properly in order to keep up with Liam. Pretty soon he's got it under control and then Liam is forced to apply all those things Parrish taught him in CQC.

And so it continues. Liam gets better and then Parrish is forced to step up his game. Then he surpasses Liam and Liam is forced to step up. It's slow going, and painful. They don't go easy on each other because they can't, because pushing each other to the limit is how they're learning. But it's okay somehow. Somehow the claws and broken bones don't matter so much any more. Somehow Liam get ahold of his anger a little better because Hellhound Parrish is never fazed by it and also extremely clear headed. Somehow the pain doesn't matter because they're helping each other. It's okay, because they're friends and this, this is something friends do, they push each other to be better. Liam is glad that it's okay, that this camaraderie is growing between them and from the easing tension in their sparring sessions, Parrish is glad too.


"Lydia said," began Liam after one of their sparring sessions, when they're both drinking water. "Lydia said when you first used to change that it wasn't you."

Parrish stops drinking and looks at him and then nods after a while. "Cerberus," he says.

"How does that work?" Liam asked.

"It is me," Parrish said, "But my instincts, the hellhound part of me, is pretty developed. That part of me only came awake because of the IED in Afghanistan. Like Lydia and an alpha's bite, I needed to be awakened."

"So it's like split personality?"

Parrish grinned and shook his head. "No. Just, like another side of me. The side that knew what I was. I've been a hellhound all my life. That's why I age so slowly. The healing factor. What Lydia did was force that side of me to break down the barrier between both sides of me. It allowed me to merge those sides. It's why I have a lot more control now."

"Is that why you went into bomb disposal?" Liam asked, "So if you ever needed to be awakened…?"

"Maybe," said Parrish. "I'll never really know but it's probably safe to say that my attraction to fire was because of it."

"She mentioned something about the Nematon," Liam hedged.

"Hell hounds are guardians of the preternatural," Parrish said, "When the Nematon was reawakened, I needed to come awake because it was going to be calling things to it."

"Why didn't it just reawaken Halwyn though?" asked Liam, "I mean, he was closer."

"I guess it's because he already had a mission," said Parrish. "And maybe, this Nematon wasn't his to guard."

"You think it's yours?" Liam asked.

Parrish thought and then shook his head. "It called me," he said, "But it's not mine to guard. It's not anyone's to guard. But I have a theory that any hellhound working around a Nematon would have to work with the pack there."

Liam took that in, blinked and then said slowly. "You think you got awakened because you were the best bet to work with us?"

"It's a theory," said Parrish, "but Scott and the others were the ones who woke the Nematon. Maybe the only hellhound it could wake was someone like me."

"Because someone like Halwyn…," said Laim.

"Would be a little difficult to work with," Parrish admitted, a smile twitching on the deputy's lips.

"And wouldn't be Scott's first choice," Liam said.

"Or Allison's or Stiles' or even Deaton, Lydia or Isaac," said Parrish.

"Do you think that there are other hellhounds by the other Nematons?" Liam asked.

"I don't know," Parrish said, "Maybe, if they're as active as this one."

"Ours is half dead," said Liam. "What's a fully grown one going to be like?"

Parrish turned and grinned at him suddenly. "You know, I really don't want to find out."


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On a more somber note my condolences to all the persons affected by the recent Las Vegas shooting.