2000 words of fluff! Enjoy!

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After filling in Dean and Cas on the latest happening, the boys came back upstairs, cuddling up, talking about other things, listening to music, the kind of crap couples just sorta did when they hung out, though they seemed to realize after what had happened it would be impolite to get too… affectionate. After a while Claire padded out of her room quickly, on the balls of her feet, legs stiff and tight together.

"Oh, is she…?"Claudia asked curiously, not finishing her thought even though only John could hear her.

"Um…" John sucked in a hesitant breath. He'd seen her unpacking products but he really didn't wanna assume or get into her business…

"PERIOD" Stiles' stupid app on his phone croaked, as apparently they'd both thunk about it too hard. Damn it all. Derek covered his face where he was sitting behind Stiles, and Stiles was already beat red, turning off the app.

"What the fuck!" He whispered, laughing softly, pausing a second before turning to Derek. "Do you think she-?"

"Yes, I heard!" Claire yelled from the bathroom. "Tell your stupid ghosts to mind their own fucking business!" She made a loud fed up noise.

"Sorry!" Stiles answered for them, at normal speaking volume. After a few minutes Claire padded back to bed across the hall. About five more minutes later, she opened her door again, this time with sweatpants on under her flannel, and padded up to the doorway, knocking softly on the door frame. "Yeah?" Stiles asked, John assumed not being able to see her from where the boys were on the bed. She peeked in.

"I can't get back to sleep right now, and Kaia's asleep, can I chill in here a bit 'til I get tired?" The boys were both already agreeing insistently, Stiles moving his phone and Derek eyeballing to make sure there was enough room for her to comfortably join them. Claire only took the edge of the bed though, curling up on her side next to them. "Thanks…" She muttered, using Stiles' pillow to block the light a bit. "I've been cuddly as fuck since I turned, so it's weird to sleep alone…" She explained, probably just to eat the silence.

"Don't worry about it." Stiles assured, gently gliding a hand over her head. As surprised as Derek appeared to be at the gesture, Claire seemed appreciative, and curled up a bit tighter. Stiles and Derek quietly listened to some relaxing music, and talked about random stuff in smooth murmurs. After a while Claire rolled onto her stomach, and turned her head away with a small groan. Stiles and Derek looked at her quizzically.

"Why do you smell so weird and pungent?" She asked without any prompting. Derek either couldn't contain his chuckle, or decided not to. Claudia covered her mouth as she snickered, even though no one could hear them but themselves. Kid wasn't wrong. Even to a human nose, Stiles always had quite a musk. Stiles just rolled his eyes.

"I'm a teenage boy, let me and my stink live."

""Mm, it's not bad, it's just… notable." Claire offered.

"Yeah, it's just something interesting about you…" Derek agreed, obviously trying to save face, whether he was being honest or not.

"Good to know my stink is endearing." Stiles rolled his eyes.

"It totally is…" Claire muttered sleepily. Derek just nodded in agreement, kissing Stiles shoulder. Stiles ran a hand over Claire's hair again.

"Go to sleep already, you funky little werewolf." He murmured, already flicking through his phone again as he anticipated the ending of the current song. Claire mewled comfortably in a way that wasn't particularly human-like or animalistic. She settled all the same. John wasn't sure if she was actually asleep but her breathing was shallow and relaxed, so they figured she was at least resting soundly. After a little while, John and Claudia, and it seemed the boys as well, though they ignored it, heard faint ghostly little feet running up the stairs. Anna appeared in the doorway before Jacob had made it down the hall.

"Aw!" Jake said loudly, ruining the atmosphere a bit, as kids tended to. "You beat me again! No fair!" Anna laughed.

"Why don't you just blink then?" She asked, mouth unmoving.

"That's no fun though!" Jacob whined. Anna shook her head at him gently.

"Go on." She told him, motioning into the room. Jake rushed in, hopping about excitedly.

"Sheriff, Sheriff, Annie said I could go with Stiles and Scott tonight!"

"Jacob…" Anna scolded. "No I didn't, I told you to ask Mr. Stilinski and Claudia." Jacob pouted but complied.

"Please can I go? Please, please, please, please!" Jake asked insistently. Claudia looked to John. He'd told her he wanted to help her keep order amongst them, since he was Stiles' father, though she had much more experience. So she was largely letting him deal with things she thought he could handle.

"Buddy, I'm not sure you're going to enjoy it much… It's just gonna be a bunch of big kids being gross and cuddly. And besides, there's a big monster out there we've gotta worry about, and those mean people who broke in are still out there…." Jacob flailed.

"I can be scary too, look!" Before John could stop him, he'd flung all the other upstairs doors open. Before he could slam them closed, Juliet was growling warningly, giving him a stern look, and he stopped. "Sorry, Julie." He squeaked. John rubbed his temple, as Stiles and Derek uncomfortable went back to what they were doing.

"Okay, Jake, you can go, if Anna is okay taking you with." John looked up to Anna who nodded immediately.

"Gladly…" She said happily, smiling. "Scott's coming up the drive, by the way. He should be up in a few minutes, assuming he didn't forget his key." Of course, Stiles phone notified as a text came in.

"That's probably him." Claudia mused, relaxed but exhausted, almost seeming to be dazed. Derek looked on curiously as Stiles went to the conversation to get rid of the notification.

"'Jhm'? What's that mean?" He asked, confused, probably assuming it was some slang acronym. Stiles chortled a bit.

"It means he's on his bike and he's got no coordination." He answered snarkily as steps (the non-ghostly sort) climbed the stairs. There was so many people in the house, John couldn't really tell whose footsteps were whose yet. Soon the question answered itself. Whoever it was popped into the master bedroom, then cautiously made their way down the hall. Eventually Dean was standing in the doorway.

"Hi, Dean!" Jacob called, excitedly jumping about, though of course, as the longest dead out of all of them, he knew Dean wouldn't hear. Anna just nodded moving aside. John didn't quite understand this habit of greeting the living, and Claudia didn't usually bother with it, so he decided not to either. Dean,of course having not been aware of any of this, stepped in just slightly to talk to the... youngins? - and awkwardly jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"Uh, hey, good to see you're all having a nice little hang out. Quick question, the fuck's up with all the doors being open?" Dean tried to seem as casually curious as possible, but was obviously not happy about it. Derek made a bit of an "it wasn't us" face/gesture, as Stiles shook his head.

"Dean, if I questioned every weird thing that has happened recently, you'd have to send me up to Echo."

"What the hell is 'Echo'?" Dean asked, confused like only a non-local could.

"Oh, Dean… You don't know Echo House?" Stiles said with a chuckle. "Oh, we so need to go over my 37 most severe phobias. That's gonna be so much fun. I can't wait." Dean rolled his eyes.

"Very funny. Seriously, what is it?"

"It's the local mental institution." Derek answered instead. "They say it's so bad that you can hear the screams from patients 'echo' from it. Thus, it's called Echo House. But… It's really just a stupid creepy story."

"Is it the patients..?" Stiles asked spookily. "Or are they the ghosts of AMERICAN RACISM~?!" Dean gave Stiles a mix of a "Have you lost your mind?" and a "What on earth are you talking about?". Derek rolled his eyes, elbowing Stiles.

"Don't joke, that's serious…" He looked to Dean and Claire. "It used to be part of an internment camp, where a huge massacre happened back during world war 2. Now people think it's haunted."

"Not haunted, cursed. God knows the atrocities that happened around there before that. Fires, suicides, murder sprees, experimentations… Some people even say it was a mass grave site back from westward expansion, although in the Urban legends that usually gets twisted to 'native burial grounds', which is kinda gross but hey, thank Poltergeist. Not only did they misrepresent what Poltergeists are, they made a huge racist horror cliche."

"How did they misrepresent Poltergeists? Aren't they just really destructive ghosts or whatever?" Derek asked, seemingly intending to change the subject. Stiles turned to give him an offended look.

"Ohhh," Claudia groaned. "He just got himself in so much trouble…"

"Really?" Stiles asked unbelievingly. Derek didn't seem to see the issue. "... I might ACTUALLY have to break up with you right now." Claudia laughed, but John nudged her, as Derek seemed genuinely confused and upset and it was rude to laugh at the kid when he had no clue what was going on, even if he couldn't hear. Stiles sighed and rolled his eyes. "No. They're human-made ghosts actually, collections of psychic energy given sense of self by the intense turmoil of humans. Any intense concentration of energy or emotion can cause them, but usually they're created as a result of trauma. They often plague traumatized teens and foster kids, seemingly those with dormant telekinetic, pyrokinetic, or other psychic abilities, since all us traumatized orphans don't have chairs stacking on our table or have our wallpaper randomly sparking up. You know?"

"Pffft," Claire scoffed, mouth half muffled by the bed. "You literally have at least two ghost fucking with your shit like all hours of the day." Stiles took a deep breath.

"At least one of which we're pretty sure is my father who was at one point alive and was his own entity and thus does not qualify as a poltergeist, and no one will tell me about the other one, so fuck you both, I hope it does fuck with you." Stiles said without even expelling the breath he'd taken, letting it out immediately once he finished. Annalise gave a smirk as much as her condition allowed, and flipped the light switch a few times, making everyone pause. John couldn't even fault her, that was just hilarious. "Thank you, unidentified other ghost, your contribution is greatly appreciated." Dean gave Stiles a stern glare with no actual authority behind it, probably because he was also amused.

"Don't encourage them...?" He commanded snarkily under his breath. Annalise flicked the lights one more time just to be petty, making Dean glare.

"I think it's mocking you…. Sir." Derek remarked, faintest hint of a smirk.

"Fucking superb, you spooky little ghost." Claire muttered approvingly.

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(Remember to drop a kind work if you've got a second. heartheartheart)