I get a feeling I'm spoiling u guys with such fast chapters lol, hopefully my muse cooperates with this rhythm and stays put instead of going on vacation.
September 10th, 2009
"Come watch a cosmic snowball of gas and dirt go about its business slightly closer to Earth," Stiles invites while handing out one of the itineraries for Comet Night, making his cousin giggle by his side and slap his shoulder once they're far away enough from the person who took the pamphlet.
"Take this seriously!" she warns, though her annoyed look is quickly replaced by a smile once someone else approaches, "come to Comet Night," she tells the lady walking a dog as she hands her the pamphlet.
Stiles doesn't have the heart to tell her that the paper is most likely going to be used to pick up dog poop. "I'm being completely serious," he tells her instead, "comets are made of ice, rock, gas, and dust, what's there to be so excited about?"
"It's about the community," Caroline insists, "we're getting together and watching something that only happens once in a lifetime, it's a bonding experience!"
"Making friendship bracelets is a bonding experience, but somehow I don't see the whole town getting together for it," Stiles mutters as Caroline walks off again to hand off pamphlets in a different location since going at it in pairs kind of cuts the efficiency of the act in half, "come to Comet Night if you've got nothing better to do," he hands out another one, "Come to Comet Ni-whoa!"
Stiles trips over something but somehow finds the balance to stay on his feet instead of having an intimate encounter with the grass. He straightens up and gets a look at the owner of the boot-clad feet that tried to take him down, meeting startlingly blue eyes filled with amusement.
"Sorry," the man offers, not sounding sorry at all.
"I'll live," Stiles replies, getting over it with the practice of a seasoned school outcast and holding out a pamphlet, "Come to Comet Night, there will be more people to trip," he invites with a mischievous tone.
"Not my thing," the stranger says, fixing Stiles with a strangely intense look as he adds, "Why don't you tell me about the pretty blonde I saw with you instead?"
Siles scoffs, "She's way too young for you," he informs the man, who by all means fits into the 'tall, dark, and handsome' description Caroline gave of her mystery guy from the grill, "She's also the Sheriff's daughter, so I'd really worry about the jail part of jailbait."
"Interesting," the man mutters, the look gone after he blinks.
"Who did I just warn away from my baby cousin, by the way?" Stiles asks because he might as well.
"Damon Salvatore," is the answer he gets, which immediately makes him perk up.
"You're related to Zach?" Stiles blurts out, smiling sheepishly at the man's surprised expression, "It's just that he usually lets me raid his library when I'm in town, probably as a favor to my aunt to keep me out of trouble, and I really wanted to come over and check out some stuff."
"You don't say," Damon's expression falls back into something more pleasant than before when he'd clearly been fishing for information, "He's my uncle, actually. If you go to school with the blondie you may have met my brother, Stefan?"
"I never got around to talking to him, but I've seen him around," Stiles nods, he vaguely remembers Caroline saying Stefan's full name but somehow his brain hadn't made the leap that he could actually be related to Zach too.
To be fair, today had been Stiles' second day at the school and he was already swamped with enough work to distract him from his usual extracurricular activities like perusing the Salvatore library for town lore.
"He can be a bit of a loner," Damon warns him in a joking tone, "tell you what, I doubt Zach would mind if you look at some those books when he's not home, so why don't you stop by anytime? Just knock and I'll let you in."
"You sure about that?" at the following nod, Stiles grins, "Awesome, I'll definitely stop by sometime soon. Oh, I'm Stiles, by the way. Stiles Stilinski."
"Your parents named you Stiles Stilinski?" Damon doesn't sound like he believes it, which is fair.
"My parents gave me an unpronounceable Polish name, Stiles is a nickname and less painful for all parties involved," He explains.
"Then I'll see you around, Stiles."
By the time night falls, the square is getting full enough to be a constant tripping hazard, at least in Stiles' opinion. People brought blankets and coolers with drinks to hold out until the comet passes, making a small maze of grass patches between spread blankets for people to tread around them and making him zig-zag all over the place if he wants to get somewhere.
"There you are!" His arm is suddenly grabbed by his favorite blonde hurricane, who starts dragging him toward a bench by one of the trees, "don't think I haven't noticed you avoiding Tyler, mister. Come say hi."
"I wonder why," he mutters sarcastically, spotting Lockwood and Matt in the bench along with some other girl he doesn't remember the name of, probably because she's not in any of the founding families.
Growing up visiting Mystic Falls during school breaks, he'd mostly been treated like an extension of Caroline and therefore made to interact with the kids of other founding families, especially when their parents got together for council meetings, meaning he's had plenty of exposure to Tyler Lockwood's particular brand of bullshit. He was like the Mystic Falls Jackson, only with a different brand of daddy issues, which feels almost sacrilegious to say about someone related to Lydia Martin, but he's earned it. The only thing Stiles is glad for is that Elena had also been in those arranged playdates, which meant she befriended Caroline - with him going along by default - and introduced them to Bonnie and Matt, whose companies he enjoyed much more than most of the founders kids.
"Hey Stiles, nice to see you man," Matt stands to greet him with a quick hug and a pat on the back, those wide puppy eyes of his reminding Stiles painfully of Scott.
"You too, how's your sister?" he asks immediately, remembering she'd been in the hospital last he'd heard.
"Already out and about," Matt replies with a relieved smile, "probably out here somewhere."
"Stilinski," Lockwood drawls in his own form of greeting.
"Lockwood," he returns in a disinterested tone, though their staring match is quickly broken by a hand entering his field of vision.
"Hi, I'm Aimee, we have English together," she introduces herself.
"Call me Stiles," he says when he shakes her hand, not feeling up to justifying his full name.
"Aimee, why don't we go get some more candles?" Caroline suggests and practically drags the girl away under their amused looks.
"So, you thinking of trying out for the team?" Matt asks, deciding to ignore the girls' behavior.
"No way man, I like all my body parts where they are," Stiles jokes, shaking his head, "I'll probably do track or something."
"You could join the cheerleaders since you're pretty much one of the girls," Lockwood taunts.
"You're just jealous that, unlike you, I'd probably look good in a skirt," Stiles retorts immediately, making Matt splutter and Lockwood scoff, "dude, I've been helping Care practice routines every break since she decided to work her way up to cheer captain, it's hard work!"
"So you're speaking from experience?" Lockwood smirks and Stiles rolls his eyes, but any retort is cut off by Caroline returning, followed by Elena and bringing Bonnie with her, Aimee nowhere to be seen.
"Decided to watch the cosmic snowball of doom?" Stiles asks in a teasing tone, moving to Bonnie's side. She hands him one of her two candles and lights his up, while Matt moves to light Elena's.
"Can't let you suffer through it alone, can I?" She elbows his side with a smile.
"Ugh, so much drama," Caroline bemoans from their spot at one of the tables inside the Mystic Grill, looking at Matt as he cchecks on Vicky, who'd vanished in the middle of the comet observation and had been recently found by Stefan. "Ever notice how the druggies are the biggest attention whores?"
"Yeah," Bonnie agrees absentmindedly.
"I mean, it's one of the reasons for starting it in the first place," Stiles shrugs, elaborating at their confused looks, "y'know, a cry for attention? Or doing it 'cause it's cool or whatever so people notice you, but then actually getting hooked," at Caroline's raised brow, he turns defensive, "What? I'm surrounded by cops, I had to pick up a thing or two about reading people."
"Excuse me, Hi," a male voice interrupts his potential rant and they look toward it to see Stefan approaching their table, "have you guys seen Elena?"
"I think she went home," Bonnie replies and Stefan nods, starting to turn away before she adds, "I'm gonna give you Elena's cell number and e-mail," she turns to grab a pen form her purse before starting to write on a corner of the night's itinerary, "She is big on texting, and you can tell her I said so," she rips off the corner and holds it out to him with a smile.
"Thank you," Stefan accepts it, but the moment their hands touch Bonnie freezes for a second before letting go of the piece of paper as if it burnt her. "You okay?"
"What happened to you?" Stiles hears her whisper before blinking and shaking her head as if coming out of a trance, looking surprised at her own actions, "That- was so rude," she smiles embarrassedly, standing from her chair, "I'm sorry. Excuse me," she walks past Stefan toward the bathroom.
"Yeah, that kind of happens," Caroline says with a shrug at Stefan's slightly worried look, cutting through the charged moment like a very determined pair of scissors, "It's like her thing."
"Her witchy thing," Stiles adds before smiling at Stefan, "I'm Stiles, by the way, Caroline's cousin," he extends a hand, adding jokingly, "no witchy things on my end."
"Stefan Salvatore," they briefly shake hands, though Stefan is the one that frowns minutely before letting go.
"Damon's brother, right?" He asks, just to be sure. Stefan's expression immediately turns more serious.
"You've met Damon?" his tone clearly lost some of its warmth, and Stiles wonders why.
"Yeah, I mentioned Zach usually lets me raid the Salvatore library and he told me to stop by anytime," Stiles explains, "but I wanted to run that by you, since you also live there and all."
"Right," Stefan nods to himself before offering a small smile, "I'd rather be there if you stop by, if that's alright."
"Your house, your rules," Stiles shrugs, "can I get a number to check if you're around for me to stop by?"
"Sure," they trade contacts, with Stefan saved in Stiles' phone as 'hero hair', before parting ways.
"I can't believe you managed to get his number before I did," Caroline grumbles once he's out of earshot.
"Might help that I'm not trying to sleep with him," he suggests jokingly, earling another slap on the shoulder, "what did my shoulder ever do to you?"
"I'm back," Bonnie says as she drops back down into her chair with a breathless chuckle, "sorry, that was weird. It was weird, right?"
"Your witchy thing isn't weird," Stiles replies, looking curious, "what did you feel?"
"Besides embarrassment," Caroline quips, earning twin glares.
"I don't know," she answers, glancing down at the table, "I'm no good at putting it in words, you know that."
"Take a guess anyway," Stiles suggests, too intrigued to let go.
Bonnie frowns and takes a deep breath before looking back at them, "I think… it felt like death."
Stiles stares for a moment, "well, that's weird."
"Enough about that," Caroline blurts out, "how about planning our weekend shopping spree? I just remembered that the Founders' Party is two weeks away and Stiles probably has nothing to wear."
"I've got plenty to wear," he contradicts, "you just don't approve of most of it."
They end up discussing color schemes until their takeout order gets dropped off on the table, prompting them to say their goodbyes to Bonnie and leave the Grill.
"Come on, mom will complain if the food's cold," Caroline whines as they walk back to her car.
"She shouldn't eat so much takeout," Stiles points out, "we shouldn't either."
"I'd rather eat takeout than microwaved lasagna and instant noodles every day," Caroline points out, unlocking the door and slipping into the driver's seat.
"We need to go grocery shopping so I can prep some meals," he tells her, climbing into the car with the takeout bags on his lap, "I promise it won't all be rabbit food."
"I'll hold you to that."
Heh, see any changes yet?
On an unrelated note, my 3am sleep addled brain suddenly came up with the werewolf lore to explain why and how there are two types of werewolves, guess I'll be mangling some TW and TVD lore that hopefully won't be relevant in the long run. We'll see if it ever makes it into the story though, I mostly just like to have an explanation ready just in case.