We interrupt your regularly unscheduled story to bring you... a bit of an interlude XD
The last chapter ended at the end of S01E03, but S01E04 is set after a few days' time skip so I'll take that time to focus on a couple of relationships before letting canon take the wheel.
This is a bit short, but I figured it was better than nothing until the 24th just because I'm travelling without a laptop.
September 13th, 2009
Stiles jumps out of bed with a start, feet tangling on the sheets and pulling him straight to the floor just as his door bangs open and two way too energic girls step in, pausing at the sight of his halfway off the bed, sheet-tangled body. He's unsure of what exactly woke him up but doesn't appreciate the amusement swimming in their eyes either way.
"Did you fall off the bed?" Caroline asks with repressed mirth while Bonnie hides her smile behind her hand.
"Did you forget how to knock?" He rebuts with a glare at the duo, detangling himself from the bedsheets and getting to his feet, "And why are you in my room at…" he glances at the clock above the door, "ten on a Sunday?"
"Retail therapy!" they announce cheerfully.
He lets out an annoyed groan and falls back on the bed, "kill me now."
"You promised," Caroline reminds him, "I already let you sleep as much as I could, and… we kinda need it after yesterday."
"This is emotional blackmail and I won't stand for it," he informs her matter-of-factly.
"Good thing you're lying down," Bonnie quips and it hangs over the room for a moment before Stiles snorts, shaking his head in disbelief.
"That was so bad," he drags himself back to a standing position.
Caroline ends up picking his outfit for the outing, which is just shorts, a loose t-shirt, and sneakers, stuff that's easy to take off and put back on in the fitting rooms she says. Bonnie doesn't express much of an opinion either way, just smiling in the face of his suffering like the sadistic maybe-witch that she is. They climb into Caroline's car after a couple of minutes and get settled for the hour-long drive down to Lynchburg. Because apparently, no Mystic Falls shop is good enough for Caroline Forbes. His cousin drives, of course, and Bonnie calls shotgun a second faster than Stiles so he's relegated to the back.
At least there's plenty of space to stretch his legs.
When they arrive in the city, Stiles' stomach makes its dissatisfaction known very loudly, prompting a stop at The Muse – Caroline's second favorite spot in the city – for brunch before heading to the mall. The small stop ends up taking a little over two hours after they spend half of that in the cafe and Stiles spots an antique shop just on their way back to the car. He naturally insists on taking a look, even though it's mostly filled with knickknacks and random pieces of furniture. The books are interesting at least, and Stiles walks out with two of them and a sage-scented candle like the one that had been burning in the shop, just because it smelled nice.
River Ridge Mall, once they finally arrive, is just as large as Stiles remembers and makes him regret agreeing to go shopping in the first place, not that the girls leave him much of a choice as each of them latches on to one of his arms and drag him to the closest clothing store to begin the torture. The girls try on a couple of dresses of course, and they find some funny looks to take pictures in, but a couple of hours into it and Stiles can confidently say he's never undressed as many times in one day before this little shopping spree. Caroline keeps filling his arms with shirts, jackets, and pants in so many different designs he couldn't have guessed existed, but when he looks in the mirror… he feels like a kid playing dress-up.
It's funny, in a way, since he hasn't felt like a kid in a long time.
"Are we done yet?" He asks after the latest change of clothes, trying for curiosity but only managing to sound tired.
"I've only picked four looks," Caroline replies with a pout.
"There's still the suit," Stiles points out hopefully, "It definitely counts, I don't mind going to the Founders' Party in jeans and a hoodie, or not going at all."
"Your poor date," Bonnie jokes, but earns a startled look for it.
"I need to get a date?" He exclaims, not having heard about that.
"It can be a friend date," Caroline points out, making Stiles look hopeful for a second, but only until Bonnie speaks.
"Yeah, I'm going with Caroline," his witchy friend declares, "and Elena is going with Stefan, obviously."
"I should ask Matt, just to make things awkward," Stiles suggests with a hint of mischief, earning a shirt to the face for his efforts. "Fine, alright, I'll figure it out."
"Time for the suit?" Bonnie asks, taking pity on him.
Stiles turns his best puppy-eyed stare at Caroline until she huffs and caves, "Fine, wait for me by the door."
"I've gotta-" he starts, but his cousin shushes him before he can speak.
"My treat," she holds up a credit card, "I am the one making you buy these after all. Plus Daddy's trying to buy my affection again, may as well make him think it works."
"It does," Stiles points out unapologetically.
"He doesn't need to know that," Caroline rebuts with a wink before walking off with the bag of approved looks.
"You're welcome," Bonnie sing-songs in a teasing tone.
"You're two hours too late to earn that," he replies, "five more minutes and you'd have to carry me back, so it was entirely selfish."
Once Caroline rejoins them, they go in search of a decent suit that holds up to Caroline's expectations. Stiles browses the racks while his cousin chats with the salesman, eyes roaming over the colors and patterns with no idea what to choose, if Caroline will even let him. His eyes do linger on one of them but he's quickly sidetracked by his cousin and the clerk who quickly pile a couple of pieces into his arms and shoo him into the changing room. He does, but not before turning back and grabbing an additional piece along with the ones they handed him.
Feeling like a particularly harried doll, he dresses up and twists and turns - and bends for some reason - at the command of Caroline, Bonnie, and the sales clerk. The black one is out, it just reminds him of funerals. The white one he thinks might be okay, but Caroline points out that if black is for funerals then white is for weddings and it soon joins the rejected pile. The blue one gets the longest consideration time but it's kind of too blue, in Bonnie's words. Go figure. Stiles looks between the last option - a red one that's uncomfortably close to the color of blood - and the one he grabbed last - a bluish-gray suit with a slightly darker tartan pattern that's close enough to his beloved plaid shirts to make him feel more comfortable - before grabbing the deep red dress shirt and the gray suit to try on.
He forgoes the mirror and steps out of the changing room as soon as he's done, immediately catching Caroline's attention.
"That wasn't in the pile I gave you," she sounds like she can't decide if she's annoyed or surprised.
"I like it," Bonnie decides, giving him a look he can't quite read.
"Come here," his cousin tells him even as she walks up to meet him halfway, her hands immediately heading for his hair. He endures it as she messes with it for a minute before stepping back with a grin, "aren't you glad I didn't let you get a stupid buzz cut?" she asks as she drags him to stand in front of a mirror.
He looks… different. It's definitely nothing like the last suit he'd put on - once again to attend a funeral - and it's somehow still him.
Probably the pattern.
"I'll take this one," he announces and Caroline claps excitedly, "the dress shirt too?"
"Duh," she rolls her eyes at him before shooing him back into the changing room.
Stiles chuckles at her tone, "Yes ma'am."
That night, after Bonnie's gone back home and Caroline's locked herself in her room, Stiles falls exhausted on his bed and pretends the half a dozen bags of clothes he needs to put away on the floor of his bedroom don't exist. They'd stayed another hour in the mall after Caroline spotted some shoes she just had to have and, once that was done, Stiles had insisted on eating before leaving and dragged them to Cinnabon just to see that face Bonnie made when he was being particularly ridiculous. They didn't complain about the cinnamon rolls though. Still, after falling in and out of sleep for the whole ride back, he was somehow wide awake while lying on top of the covers.
His phone pings with a notification and he pulls it out of his pocket to check it, blinking at the text telling him his car will be arriving the next day, thankfully in the afternoon which means he won't be in class and will be able to receive it. He texts back a confirmation to the truck driver that's doing him such a huge favor as to cut in half the price the actual service would have cost, he'll make sure to have some snacks for the man as an extra thanks when he arrives.
Almost absently, he calls Scott's number and only realizes he had no reason to after the call is picked up.
"Stiles!" Scott's voice is cheerful as it greets him, "How are you, dude? You won't believe how my date went…"
Stiles lets his best bud's voice wash over him as he's regaled with the latest episode of Scott's love life, which isn't much since all they did was go to a party together so far, but apparently they have a study date, that's something.
"Oh, mom says dinner's ready, I gotta go," Scott tells him with an audible grin, probably at having his mom home on a Sunday. "I'll tell your dad you called, alright?"
"Wait, what? Scotty-" Stiles can only blink at the disconnected call sound, wondering what he could possibly mean. Was- was his dad having dinner at the McCall's? That's… that's good, he did ask Mrs McCall to make sure his dad was taken care of. He's glad she's keeping her word, not that he thought she wouldn't, but still.
He hovers over his dad's contact for a minute or longer before calling. He shouldn't have bothered, apparently, since it goes to voicemail.
Maybe he forgot it at the station, he tells himself.
"Hey dad, I'm doing fine. I'd rather be there," having dinner at the McCall's apparently, "of course, but I'm… alright. Roscoe gets here tomorrow so at least I'll be more mobile then. Aunt Liz is great and she and Caroline both send their best. You better not be taking advantage of me being gone to fill up on red meat again, I told Angie at the diner to keep an eye on you, so I'll know if you do. I hope work isn't too busy, you need to get more sleep, try to delegate a little okay? And tell Mrs McCall thanks for me, Scotty mentioned telling you I called over dinner so I suppose you're eating with them? That's good. I'm glad they're taking care of you," I'm glad you're letting them, Stiles thinks but doesn't say it out loud "uh, don't forget to pay the water bill, that's coming up soon. I- I miss you."
The beep of the end of recording time cuts him off, but he figures he's said all he needed to say and puts his phone down to charge instead. He had to get some sleep if he didn't want to sleep through classes on the next day.
Can I ever write something without sprinkling a bit of angst? We'll find out one day, but that day is not today lol.
I'm weak for this suit pic (see on Ao3), so it's the suit Stiles chose. Let's be real, it beats his prom one.
Probably one or two more chapters focusing on Stiles and his relationships (and a whole lot of Damon because I adore him lol) before we get to S01E04 aka the Founders Party.