Fresh Chapter! Right out of the oven! Come get ya content!
Slightly smaller one because I wanted to add a few things before the whole fundraiser car wash part.
September 29th, 2009
Stiles was not looking forward to practice that day. Besides the way things ended with Damon and the news about Lydia the night before, he'd also had to deal with a full day of his very packed school schedule and dodge answering why he was in a bit of a bad mood when the girls asked since Damon's business was his own. To top it all off, Cheer practice was once again at the same time as the football one - they did find a new coach which was telling when considering that History remained a self-study period - for the first time since he'd joined the squad.
At least Caroline had made him buy a couple of tights for practice instead of the uniform ones, or he may never hear the end of it. At least during games, the players will be distracted by their own roles and either too crushed or too excited to comment depending on the result of the match. It's not that he actually cares what people think, he's learned that the opinion of people he doesn't care about hardly matters since he was a kid, but putting up with the unwanted commentary can become very irritating, very fast.
"Come on, you're on Bonnie duty," Care winked at Stiles as she pulled him past the field and toward the corner the squad usually trains at.
A loud whistle makes them pause in their tracks, Caroline looking surprised but Stiles realizing his expectations were about to be met since Tyler Lockwood had been the one to catcall them and follow it by opening his damn mouth, "Aren't you missing something?" he calls out loudly, grabbing some of the team's attention that hadn't been on them yet. Stiles doesn't dignify it with a response and instead starts pulling Caroline forward, but Lockwood doesn't let that stop him. "Where's the skirt, Stilinski?"
When some of the team snickers at that, Stiles takes a deep breath before turning to the boy, eyes slightly wide and a coy smile on his lips, "I didn't know you wanted to ogle my legs so badly, Lockwood!" he retorts with feigned surprise, the hand not in Caroline's arm resting on his chest to complete the dramatic statement.
The team bursts into loud laughter and Stiles thinks he can hear Matt tell a raging Lockwood that it's what he gets for acting like an asshole. He throws the angry teen a smirk before rushing off with Caroline to the practice corner. Savannah greets him with a hug - she's tactile like that - since she wasn't in the morning classes but Caroline swiftly orders her away as she begins to explain the routine they're doing that day, entirely in her element while bossing people around. He still can't believe he signed up for this.
Oh well, at least now he knows why the girls he lifts or catches always seem so light.
He's coming back from a small break to refill his water bottle when Stefan intercepts him, looking somber and brooding. Well, a bit more than usual. "How do you know about us?"
Stiles pauses, waiting out the mental whiplash from the training routine to vampires before answering, "Got attacked in the forest by one last week, then ran into Damon. Also, the thing you did while telling me to go home, with the intense look and dilating pupils? Not that subtle if you've seen it before."
Stefan looks at him for a moment before apparently deciding he believes him, "And what was that day about? With Katherine?" he seems reluctant to ask.
"Eavesdropping is rude," Stiles points out, "and that's none of your business unless Damon makes it so.
The teen's tone has a slight touch of annoyance when he retorts, "It is my business when my brother leaves, looking pissed, and doesn't come back."
"He left?" Stiles tries his best to keep the disappointment out of his tone. He thought… well, doesn't really matter now, does it? "Uh- still none of your business, dude. But thanks for letting me know." he resumes walking his previous path, brushing past Stefan as he leaves.
"How did you break your phone, anyway?" Bonnie asks as Stiles looks over the menu from their table at the Grill.
"He won't tell me," Caroline complains, "bet it's too embarrassing. Did it fall into the toilet?"
"No," Stiles rolls his eyes, eyes rising for the menu to roam the room for a waiter. Instead, they meet curious brown ones in a booth by the corner, "Hey, can you guys just order me a grilled cheese or something? I gotta talk to someone."
"Sure," his cousin throws him a curious look but shrugs and Stiles grins at them before standing and heading toward the booth where he'd spotted the girl, only to realize just as he got to their table that she has company.
"Anna," he greets anyway, "And…" he glances at the older woman for a moment before recognition hits him, "your mother, right?"
"Yes, Pearl Zhu," Anna introduces with a tight smile, "Mom, this is Stiles, I told you about him."
"Nice to meet you Ms Zhu," Stiles offers politely, though his hands remain in his pockets. Sue him for wanting a tiny bit of distance from the lady that attacked him. Sure, she was starving and he doesn't blame her, but it was still fucking scary at the time. "Anyway, I just came by to tell Anna I'm gonna be unreachable for a bit 'cause my phone's broken."
Anna gives him a knowing look but doesn't comment, "Alright."
"Also…" he hesitates a moment before asking, "Any chance I could get like the vampire crash course? Out of my two other sources, one's out of town and the other may be a teensy bit upset at me for the first one," he admits sheepishly.
"You expect us to help you arm others against us?" Pearl speaks for the first time, sounding skeptical and unimpressed.
"Arm- hold your horses, ma'am, I'm not gathering the pitchforks," he frowns slightly, "I have people I'd like to protect, that's all. I already know about the vervain and the super speed, but there's a bunch of myths I'd like to clear up so I don't try spraying the next vampire that attacks me with holy water or something." he also isn't above a little manipulation to get what he wants, life's all about your resources after all.
"Sure," Anna agrees after a moment, sliding to the side on the bench and motioning for him to sit. It earns her a disapproving look from her mother, who scoffs and stands from her place before heading toward the bar. Anna offers an apologetic look before prompting, "Ask away."
"Uh…" that was easier than he'd thought. "So, you've clearly got reflections," he'd seen Damon in the mirror a couple of times. "Garlic?"
"Love it," Anna replies, "but that's more of a personal preference.
"Crosses? Church? Holy water?" He continues, saying what comes to mind. "Sunlight?"
"Tacky, boring, drinkable," she hesitates before adding, "Lethal, but there are ways around it."
"So no shiny vampires," Stiles jokes. "What about vegetarian ones? Animal blood?"
"Sickening. Hard to keep down and makes us weak," She explains. "Blood from the vein is the best option, and blood bags are… the bare minimum. Kind of like eating stale leftovers and it takes a lot more to feel full due to the whole process they go through."
"Huh," that's interesting, he has to make an effort to keep from asking a million questions related to blood quality and vampire health. "I know you're faster and stronger. What else?"
"Everything is enhanced after transition," She replies, "Sight, hearing, vision, touch… emotion. It's all a little more intense. Love can become an obsession, anger turns to rage, and sadness feels like the end of the world. It's… a lot, honestly. It's why a lot of new vampires end up turning off their emotions."
"Whoa, there's a lot to unpack there," Stiles points out. "First, transition? So vampires are made? How?"
"If you drink vampire blood and then die with it still in your system, you'll come back in transition," She elaborates. "After that, you'll have around twenty-four hours to either drink human blood to complete it or to refuse and go back to being dead."
"Right, and what do you mean by turning off emotions? That's not how emotions work," he adds in exasperation. If it were that easy, he would have done it ages ago.
Anna shrugs, "It is for us, it's a kind of switch that numbs them all, gets rid of what many would say makes us human. Guilt, sadness, grief, shame, all of it becomes irrelevant. A vampire without their humanity is ten times more dangerous since they're not ruled by their emotions and will feel no remorse for anything they do."
"That's- terrifying," Stiles admits in a whisper.
"We are predators, some just can't-" she starts in a slightly defensive tone, but Stiles shakes his head, interrupting her.
"No, I meant the temptations to just… not care," he admits. It sounds like it could be incredibly tempting. "Always there, whenever anything goes wrong, and with what you said about intensified emotions… how aren't all vampires walking around with their emotions off?"
She only looks at him for a second before sighing, "A lot of them are, but some of us… we've come back from it and realized that all the good goes away with the bad, and everything returning at once is a million timer worse than if we'd had the time to process the loss and- anyway, we know better." from experience is heavily implied.
There's a moment of silence, one where Stiles isn't quite sure what to say, but it doesn't last for long. "What about defending myself against one? It's clear that, like humans, they're not all friendly."
"A broken neck will keep a vampire down for a bit, but it's not lethal," She starts. "Fire, decapitation, sunlight… ripping their hearts out," she adds with a smirk. "Oh, can't forget wooden stakes, but only to the heart or it's not fatal, just a massive pain. That's it, I think."
"Thank you," he says emphatically, earning a slight smile from the girl. "I hope your mom isn't too mad?"
"We'll be fine," she assures him as he stands and they say their goodbyes before he walks back to the table with Bonnie and Caroline waiting for him.
Guess having supernatural contacts does pay off.
It's already been dark for a while when Stiles finally manages to get back to his room, closing the door behind him and praying Caroline is done discussing the fundraiser this time. He's so focused on getting his clothes off - the tights nearly tripping him into the ground as usual - that he only notices the small, rectangular black box sitting on his bed once he's gathering any other dirty clothes from the room to put in the washer. He freezes and steps closer to the bed, looking at the box with more attention. Attention enough to read 'iPhone 3GS' on the side of the box and immediately sit down in shock.
He grabs the box after a moment, noticing it's not sealed, and pulls it open. The recently released, all-black device inside is ten times better than the older phone he'd been carrying for a while, and a look at the specifications of it tells him exactly how much the upgrade cost. It's the 32 GB version! That's like- almost seven hundred dollars, what the hell?
He can't help but turn it on, noticing it's halfway charged once the screen lights up, and a simple look at the contacts shows him all of his saved numbers, confirming his suspicions once and for all. Damon.
He's quick to open the messaging app and type in a text.
Stiles(9:06p.m.): r u insane? this is too expensive!
Stiles(9:06p.m.): I cant believe u broke in2 my room and left a $700 phone in my bed.
Stiles(9:10p.m.): thank u.
So, IDK if this is good or bad news, I suppose it depends on if you only wanna read modified canon content or actually like the extra stuff I put in between, but there's a whole ass MONTH time skip between S01E06 and S01E07. Will I be following it? NO SIR. Time to use that rare, peaceful Mystic Falls month to get into some other stuff. Mostly fluff. It will, of course, take slightly longer since it's original content instead of a modified bit of episode, but still hopefully worth the wait.
Btw, my plan was always to have Anna infodump Stiles about the vampire basics so no one can say he's biased due to Damon ;)