The Meeting
Stiles got out of his jeep and walked inside his house, his dad was working another night shift, so he only had to make dinner for himself tonight. Which was just fine with him after the long and trying day he's had, he could just make a sandwich or something.
After werewolves became a thing in his life, things had gotten so much more exhausting and terrifying, and he just wanted to go to bed and sleep for a year or two.
But he couldn't do that, he had homework and research to do, and he had to keep his dad safe and healthy, without telling him about the supernatural.
On top of that, he had to keep Scott safe, which was not easy considering he never listened to what Stiles had to say even when he had been proven right every time so far. Sometimes he almost wished that he had just stayed home instead of going to the woods to look for a dead body, but then he remembers that magic exists, and it's probably best to not wish for anything. You never know, genies might be a thing and according to movies and books, wishing never turns out the way you want it to.
After grabbing a glass of water, Stiles walked up the stairs and to his room. He threw his bag on the floor and decided to take a nap instead of doing homework or research. He laid down on his bed and buried his face in the pillow and closed his eyes. A few minutes later, and he was asleep.
What he didn't know was that while he was sleeping, he got a small guest sitting on top of his dresser. She had been his guest for a few days now, and she found Stiles to be very fascinating. Enough so that she had stayed longer than she had planned on, she had originally searched refuge in Stiles room for the day, but it was cozy, and it had more than enough food for her, on top of the amusing human boy.
She only hoped he wouldn't be afraid of her as most other humans are, it would be such a shame to have to leave him forever. She quite liked this territory, and she hadn't felt this safe before, she really would like to stay.
A few hours later Stiles woke up from a very restful nap but was still not quite ready to get up and get some work done, so he stayed on the bed and thought about his day.
It had started good enough, he woke up and got ready for school, and got to the first class a whole 10 minutes before it started. But then it got worse. Harris had it out for him during chemistry, even when Stiles didn't do or say anything, he was yelled at.
It didn't get better when Scott started to ignore him, he had been more distant than usual lately. Sure he had a girlfriend now, and he was practically best friends with Isaac now too, but that didn't mean he had to completely ignore Stiles. Did it? Had Stiles done something wrong, or had Scott just gotten tired of him, finally?
Stiles just couldn't figure out what was happening with Scott, and he hated it, he didn't want to lose his best friend since toddlerhood.
But what could he do about it, if Scott didn't want him around anymore then why should Stiles bother to try anymore?
Finally, Stiles decided to ignore his problems, and opened his eyes, only to yell out in alarm. Because right in front of him on the pillow beside his head, sat a big brown spider. He sat up quickly and left the bed. He wasn't afraid of spiders, not really, he just didn't know much about them and was cautious about them.
He looked at the spider again.
It was large and brow, the eight eyes were in three rows, 4 smaller on the bottom, two bigger above them, and another two on top of those. Its legs are a lighter brown, the body dark brown, with three light brown stripes on the top body, and two light brown stripes on the bottom half of the body. And of course, it was hairy and a little scary looking, with big pedipalps and fangs.
But in Stiles's opinion, it was kind of cute. If spiders can be cute then this one is.
"Hello there," Stiles said. Of course, the spider didn't answer but that didn't deter Stiles.
"So what are you doing in here, hm?" he continued.
"What kind of spider are you? Are you here to kill me? Because if so, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave my room." And now he felt ridiculous, having a one-sided conversation with a spider, who does that?
Instead, he turned to his computer, turned it on, and started researching spiders.
It took some time, and boy, how many species of spiders are there? But after a while, he found a site with names and pictures of spiders, and sure there were many that looked kinda like his spider but not exactly until he saw one spider in particular and read the name. He then laughed out loud, of course. Why wouldn't the spider that spied on him in his sleep be a Wolf Spider?
Did he somehow draw in wolf creatures, or is it just a very funny coincidence?
"Well then, if I'm right and you are a Wolf Spider, at least you're not here to kill me. Thank you for that, I would hate it if even the spiders were out to get me now." Stiles said to the spider and looked closer at it.
If he was right and had figured out the species then this one was probably a female, and a pretty big one too.
On one site it said the spider could be up to an inch in size, but this one was at least over one inch, so bigger than usual.
"I'm gonna go to the kitchen and get something to eat, but you're more than welcome to stay here if you want to," Stiles told the spider, and then he walked to the kitchen and took out ingredients for a sandwich, he still didn't feel up to doing anything he didn't have to.
When he was done, he put everything back again and walked to the living room and turned on the TV, and watched the rerun of The Big Bang Theory that was on. It was a good TV show to watch when you didn't want too much drama but still wanted to be distracted from the real world.
Halfway through the episode, he looked away from the TV and saw the Wolf Spider walk towards him. It might have been terrifying, if not for the fact that he had faced werewolves both feral and not, Kanimas, and hunters before. A spider that wasn't venomous enough to be dangerous, barely even registered as something that should be scary. Then again Stiles is almost sure he's been in a constant state of fear since Scott became a creature of the moon.
Instead, he just watched the little brown fuzzy creature as she made her way towards the couch, and then climbed up the armrest and stopped just beside Stiles's hand, and then seemingly turned towards the TV and stayed like that.
And for the first time in weeks, Stiles actually felt like he wasn't completely alone anymore, and how pathetic isn't that? To be so lonely that the company of a spider is enough to satisfy that loneliness, even a little.
And so Stiles and his spider watched TV for an hour or two, and he wouldn't ever admit out loud but his day had gotten significantly better because of the company.
Still, he had homework to do, so he turned to the spider,
"Okay lady," he said, and Stiles could have sworn that the spider turned towards him as he spoke. "I have to get some of my homework done tonight, but I can leave the TV on so you can stay here if you want." And lord does he feel stupid talking to a spider as if it's a human or that it can understand him at all, but the spider turns completely to him and takes a few careful steps closer to his hand, and then stops.
"I don't know if that means you wanna keep watching or not, unfortunately, I don't speak spider," Stiles tells her, and she starts walking again but this time she doesn't stop until she has climbed on top of his hand.
Stiles suddenly remembers reading that while Wolf Spiders are usually not aggressive and only bite their prey or when threatened, they also usually only bite humans when being handled. He hopes that only applies to people that pick the spider up, and not to him, as the spider voluntarily climbed onto his hand.
"I'm gonna take that as a no then, but if you're gonna make a habit of climbing on me, I'm gonna need you to promise not to bite me, okay lady? I'd rather not get a red swollen hand if I can help it." He says to the spider, with a serious voice that is also a bit amused and worried.
But still, he stands up, turns the TV off, and starts to walk to his room, all the while making sure his passenger is as comfortable as possible so that she won't feel the need to bite him.
Meanwhile, his passenger is having the best day of her life. Her chosen human is not afraid of her, he hasn't even tried to get rid of her, to get her to leave. She knew she liked him for a reason. He lets her be close, and he talks to her as if she matters, and he even holds her. She feels precious and for once she isn't feared she is handled carefully but nicely.
She wishes she could answer her human, to tell him that he has nothing to fear from her. She just wants to stay with him, she wants him to continue to ask her opinion, even if she can not truly answer him. She feels special and she never wants to leave him again, except for when she needs to hunt of course.
She lays down in his hand and enjoys the feeling of contentment and safety.
When they get to the human's room, Stiles sits down in his computer chair and slowly brings his hand down on the desk and looks at her, and says,
"I'm gonna need both of my hands now lady, but you can sit on my desk if you want, or if you don't want you can go do whatever spiders do, okay?"
She sighs, or the closest she can get to it at least, and reluctantly gets up and slowly walks off of her human's hand, and climbs up on a tower of books turns to the human and lies down again.
"Don't look at me like that, I don't want to have to do homework but unfortunately I have to, or I'll get so many detentions it's not even funny." He says.
She doesn't know what homework or detention is but it sounds unpleasant, and she's glad she doesn't have to do it. Instead, she will lie on the book and observe her human, until he is done. If only she could speak to him, she could perhaps keep him from making these miserable sounds.
However, all she can do is keep him company and hope he understands that she will help him however she can.
As her humans small device makes a sound, he turns to pick it up and he reads something, whatever it is cannot be good, because her human looks worse now than when he was doing his homework. He then throws the device away and it lands in one of the corners of the room. He gets back to his homework, but water starts running from his eyes.
She grows more and more concerned, what had that device done to her human, and how can she fix it?
She doesn't know, she has never been this close to a human before, she never wanted to be. She isn't very knowledgeable in humans, other than what she has seen her human do over the last few days.
But she swears that she is going to learn, not only for herself but for her human. He needs her, and she will be there for him.
She promises herself, and her human even if he will never know, that she will do everything in her power to keep him safe and happy, she swears on her life.
She climbs down the books and walks toward her human, he has his head in his hands now, so she walks closer. She doesn't really know what to do, so she keeps walking, and then she starts climbing up his arm up to the hand and stops. She carefully lifts on leg and touches his hand lightly, so that he will notice her.
He does, he removes his hands and sees her on his arm, and he chuckles a little.
"Hi, what are you doing little lady?" He asks, and she climbs onto his hand and stretches one leg towards his face, but it's too far away.
He seems to understand though and lifts his hand closer to his face, and now she can touch his cheek. She taps it a few times and wills him to understand. To know she will do whatever she can to stop his eyes from leaking, to get him to feel as safe and content as he makes her feel.
She doesn't understand why he affects her like this, she has never been like this with anyone before not even others like her. But it doesn't matter he is special, and she will keep him with her forever. Hopefully, he will understand that and keep paying attention and talking to her. She never wants him to forget her, or to remove her from his home. But she cannot tell him this, she cannot ever talk to him as he talks to her, and it hurts her in a way she has never been hurt before. She hopes he feels the same way, that he wants her with him.
She will not give up, she will succeed in showing him her devotion and hope he still wants her near him.
She just needs to learn more about her human and how he works, so that she can act in ways he understands. But for now, all she can do is tap his cheek, and remind him that he is not alone, that he will never again be alone.
Stiles looks at the spider in his hand, and he doesn't understand the emotions she brings out in him. It's just a spider, but she makes his loneliness better, he doesn't feel alone at all with her.
It's been a few hours since he woke up to her beside his face on the pillow, and it's been the best hours since Scott became a werewolf. It's like she found him when he needed someone so much that his heart ached, and still she's just a spider. It makes no sense, how could he possibly like the company of a random spider.
But she is a Wolf Spider, it must be some sort of sign, maybe she is a spirit animal of some sort. He doesn't know, he'll probably never know, but it doesn't matter, she's here and he wants her here. He hopes she doesn't leave him as well as Scott just did.
The text he got from Scott just now was the last straw, to write to him and say he doesn't want Stiles around anymore, because he's human. The last time he was this sad and heartbroken was when his mom died. His best friend since forever just sent a text telling him he doesn't want anything to do with him anymore. And he disguised it as if he's doing Stiles a favor, that he is saving Stiles's life by staying away. As though Stiles could ever forget the supernatural exists, and just ignore everything that happens. As if he wouldn't throw himself at danger to keep the people he loves safe. No matter what.
He is brought out of his thoughts by the spider, she is reaching one of her legs towards his face as if she wants to stroke his cheek or something. He barely hesitates before bringing her closer to his face, and sure enough, she touches her leg to his cheek and taps a few times, and then looks at him as if she is asking what's wrong.
"Scott, my best friend since we were toddlers, just texted me and told me he didn't want to be friends with me anymore, that it's for my own good because involving a puny human in his new life would get me killed, and he doesn't want to have my death on his hands. As if my life is his responsibility, if anything it's always been the other way around! And he didn't even have the decency to tell me to my face! He just sent a text and bam! A lifetime friendship over, just like that!" he told her, and he's started to get more comfortable talking to this little creature.
She tapped his face again, and he looked at her again.
"I don't know what's going on here, but I feel like you can understand me, even if only a little bit. And I think I understand you too. Unless I'm wrong and I'm going crazy and think I have a connection with an arachnid, that's just waiting for the right moment to bite, to get away from the crazy human. Or maybe you're not actually here at all and I'm really going insane. But if werewolves exist, why can't spiders be able to understand what I'm saying?" He says, he has a weird need for her to understand Joe he feels, that he appreciates her presence.
"I hope I'm right though, it'd suck to lose you just when I found you, little lady." He sighed and continued, "But then again, you are a spider and I'm sure you have better things to do than to keep me company all the time. Which is fine, I wouldn't want to keep you from doing the spider things you need to do to stay alive and be happy." He finished.
Then he took a finger and slowly, stroke the spider back, and thought to himself that it felt a little like petting a very small dog, or something. He wished silently to himself that the little cute spider would at least visit him sometimes. Even if he's going to miss her when she's gone, he knows he can't keep her. She's not actually a pet.
Stiles looked at the clock and saw that it was already past midnight, and sighed again. He dried his face of any tears that were left, looked at his little friend, and said, "Well little lady, it's getting late and I'm exhausted. So I'll have to get some sleep, but I don't know if you're gonna stay or leave and I don't want to wake up and think this has just been a weird dream."
The spider climbed from his hand and up to his arm and finally settled on his shoulder. Then she lifted her pedipalps and gently tapped his neck, and it comforted him a little. Even if he doesn't know what happens tomorrow, if he wakes up and thinks this is a dream, then he will at least remember how it made him feel. His emotions are real at least, and hopefully, he'll see his spider again.
He walked to the bathroom and started to brush his teeth, and his spider kept sitting on his shoulder. But when he brought the toothbrush closer to his mouth she flinched away, and suddenly he remembered a spider-man fanfic he read once where Peter Parker was suddenly allergic to mint after the bite.
Hurriedly he put the toothbrush down and decided that he could brush his teeth in the morning, one night couldn't hurt. Especially if it was to make his spider more comfortable. Tomorrow however he'll need to buy some toothpaste without mint, in case she decides to stick around or visit from time to time. He does still want clean teeth after all.
"Sorry little lady" and again, if she is going to come around again he'll need a name for her but he guesses little lady will do for now, "I forgot about the mint thing, although I didn't even know it was real until now. I'll remember it in the future though, I promise." He told her.
So instead he went back to his room and slowly put his hand in front of the spider on his shoulder, "You're gonna have to move off of my shoulder, at least for a while, so I can take my shirt off." He told her, and he saw her hesitate before stepping on his hand, and he moved her so she could climb off his hand and onto the dresser instead.
Then he got undressed, turned off his computer and ceiling light, and walked over to the dresser again.
"I'm gonna go to bed and get some sleep now, you can do as you want, either I can bring you with me or you can stay here." He said and held out his hand for her to decide again.
There was no hesitation this time, she was quick to get on his hand, and he walked with her over to his window and opened it. Then he looked at the spider.
"If you want you can go back outside now, but you don't have to, I'm going to leave the window open either way, so you can change your mind later if you want." He told her and held her towards the open window, to see if she wanted to get out. But she just looked at him, and he felt a little judged as if she thought he was stupid to think she'd want to go outside right now.
"Okay," he said, and walked over to his bed sat down, and lowered his hand to the nightstand, to let her step off his hand, "I'll put you here, and then you can go wherever you want to, little lady." She sat on the nightstand and he almost thought she looked a little sad.
But he lied down on his bed, facing his spider, and reached for the lamp on the nightstand. "
"Goodnight, little lady, I hope to see you tomorrow," he said as he turned the light off, and just before he took his arm away he felt her climb on, and he smiled a little and then brought his hand with her on it and lowered it in front of his on the bed. He felt her pedipalps patting his hand and closed his eyes with a smile. It was the first night in a long time that he fell asleep almost the moment his eyes closed.
