What happens when I have a pre-written chapter and no self-control? U guys get two updates in a row!
October 2nd, 2009
"This is great, Mrs Lockwood," Stiles tells her after a bite of the pie she'd served for dessert, earning a smile from the woman and a roll of Tyler's eyes.
He'd gone over for lunch after school on Mrs Lockwood's request, and the scowl on Tyler's face as he ate made everything much more delicious. Mr Lockwood asked about school, and Tyler mentioned he was on the Cheerleader team, knowing how his dad is about gender roles and traditionalism. Still, Stiles ignored the man's expression and pointed out that the girls could use someone with a bit more strength in some stunts and it's not like he had to wear a skirt to hold them up like Tyler likes to insinuate. It may be a little petty, but watching Tyler get scolded for being impolite is one of the little things Stiles will never tire of.
After lunch, Mr Lockwood left to get back to work and the three of them enjoyed a piece of homemade cherry pie – Mrs Lockwood hates cooking but enjoys baking occasionally – and finally got to the point of the little get-together.
"So, how's my niece?" Mrs Lockwood asks, as usual, masking her eagerness behind a casual tone.
"She was kind of attacked," Stiles informs, quick as ripping off a band-aid, and continues before he can be interrupted, "She's fine now, probably leaving the hospital as we speak."
"Wha- Was this before you arrived?" Mrs Lockwood asks, expression twisting in worry. Even Tyler looks a little interested in his response.
"No, I actually just heard about it yesterday," a little white lie never hurt anyone and will keep him in her good graces, "There was an animal attack at a video store, Lydia got hurt and was in some sort of coma for three days but woke up yesterday and they're letting her go home today."
Mrs Lockwood stills, tone shifting slightly to something he can't quite read, "Animal attack, you say?"
"Some mountain lion, it got shot the other day actually," Stiles explains, "the dumb thing was roaming the parking lots."
"That's weird," Tyler points out unnecessarily, given they'd captured the mountain lion allegedly responsible for the Mystic Falls animal attacks just the other day.
"Quite," Mrs Lockwood agrees with a slight frown that soon turns to a practiced smile, "Thank you, Stiles, for keeping me in the loop. And how is your father?"
He's not really sure how to answer that, to be honest. They've exchanged text messages, occasional and short, most of them Stiles reminding him to eat healthily or pay one of the upcoming bills since he never deactivated the reminders from his e-mail. It's almost like when he was living there but without the very occasional hangouts or getting run off the station for looking at files.
"Busy," he answers vaguely, glancing down to avoid her enquiring looks, "Very… busy."
"What's up?" Stiles picks up his phone just before he starts driving out of the Lockwood property, not even checking the caller ID.
"Stiles, is there a reason a package for you arrived at the boarding house?" Stefan's question immediately lifts his mood and he decides on a change of plans, immediately heading toward the Salvatore home.
"I figured you guys wouldn't mind," Stiles explains distractedly, "I'm making some witchy purchases and don't wanna give my actual address, just in case. The boarding house even has a website, it's technically public, so they can't really know who bought the stuff."
"...that makes sense," the teen agrees, and there's some movement in the background that sounds a bit like cardboard, "are you picking this up?"
"Headed your way right now," he replies, "I'm gonna set up a PO box eventually, this was just kinda urgent and short notice."
"It's fine," the vampire assures him, but Stiles much prefers to control the access to his purchases so he'll still be solving that issue anyway.
Stiles lets Stefan know he's a few minutes away and hangs up, now in a much better mood. No matter which package it is - the books and aconite or the vervain - it'll be useful to have and make him feel like he's actually doing something about this new supernatural side of his life.
His first thought for a delivery address had been Bonnie's, since her dad is rarely home, or her Grams since she's actually a witch, but he didn't feel any better about divulging their addresses than he did his own, especially with all the arrangements he made to make the whole exchange anonymous, with a new email, online card, and all, just to be on the safe side, and only using his nickname. Maybe he's being a little paranoid, but he won't know it unless it pays off, and then he'll have been proven right.
Once he makes it to the boarding house, Stefan greets him at the door and takes him to the living room, where a large package awaits. By the size of it, it's definitely the books. He rushes to the package, examining the outside. The return address places the sender in New Orleans, which makes sense since something from France would probably have taken a little longer to arrive and he shouldn't have assumed only they would have books in French. It could have been from Canada.
"Anything interesting?" Stefan asks, and Stiles can hear some curiosity in his tone.
"It's some magic books I bought," he doesn't need to elaborate when Stefan's sudden look of understanding tells him he already figured they're for Bonnie.
He also looks a little baffled and amused in equal measures, "didn't know you could buy grimoires online," he comments with an amused huff.
"Grimoires are family heirlooms," Stiles corrects, "spellbooks assembled by the seller, on the other hand? Costs half my savings but can be bought."
That is also the reason he can't outright refuse Damon's expensive little gift, he quite literally can't afford a new phone after the latest purchases. He's always made a point of taking odd jobs during the year, hoping to save a few bucks every month for emergencies, and that particular account is currently being bled dry by his latest expenses.
Maybe Bonnie and I can go halfsies next time.
Stefan just hums before changing the subject, "About yesterday-"
"I'm sorry," Stiles offers before the vampire can continue, "I mean, not for barging into the plans for the news guy, 'cause you'd be lost without me, but Elena and I are in a weird place where we're sort of friends but she also made some hurtful accusations and hasn't apologized and suddenly I find out she knows about vampires when there's an unconscious guy in the mix and she starts preaching about Damon-" A chuckle interrupts his nervous rant and he reflexively shuts up.
"I'm sorry too, I think we were all pretty stressed," Stefan admits, "I had just been shot at."
"Good point," Stiles smiles slightly, taking the truce for what it is. "So… Elena?"
"Found out on her own, I spent the afternoon telling her everything," the vampire explains.
"Has she got any vervain?" He asks, mostly hoping that's one less bracelet for him to hand out.
"She does," Stefan doesn't tell him where, and he doesn't ask. It's an amusing sort of half-trust that he doesn't really mind when it's related to someone's safety.
"Good," Stiles nods to himself, "I'll be giving some to my friends as well." he doesn't specify which, and Stefan doesn't ask.
"Should I be expecting any more packages?" Stefan questions when Stiles picks up the one on the table.
"Only one more, I'll set up my own thing in the meantime," he assures, heading to the door, "thanks."
He waits until the package is safely in his trunk before sending Bonnie a text.
Stiles(3:17p.m.): got some light reading for u, wyd?
Cinnabon(3:19p.m.): Meditation aka sleeping cuz bored
Stiles(3:19p.m.): lol need saving?
Cinnabon(3:20p.m.): Grams says not 2day
Cinnabon(3:20p.m.): Can u come over tmrw?
Stiles(3:21p.m.): maybe, I'll check
He closes those messages and sends a different text since he does have plans for Saturday and definitely for Sunday, so his only option is to try for a last-minute rescheduling and hope the kid doesn't mind.
Stiles(3:21p.m.): Bonnie wants me over tmrw, wanna train now?
Baby Gilbert(3:23p.m.): sure y not
Stiles(3:23p.m.): pick u up in 1h?
Baby Gilbert(3:23p.m.): 👍
Stiles smiles to himself and goes back to the initial texts with Bonnie.
Stiles(3:24p.m.): c u tmrw.
Cinnabon(3:20p.m.): 8am!
Stiles(3:24p.m.): 😭fine.
With that out of the way, he quickly makes his way back home. He's halfway up the stairs when his cousin's voice makes him pause.
"What's that?" The curious tilt to her voice tells him he better answer or she'll go snooping around later.
He would tell her the specifics, but he still needs to ask Bonnie whether or not she wants to tell Caroline about her witchy powers, which leaves him with having to evade the question.
"Books," Stiles tells her honestly, "just research stuff," he adds, and her curiosity clearly fades to resignation. "I'm going to the gym with Jeremy, by the way. Wanna tag along?"
"I'm meeting Trish for mani-pedis," Caroline replies, "why, miss me kicking your ass?"
"It's the other way around," he chuckles, "next time?"
"Sure, I could use the exercise," she shrugs and finally lets him go back to bringing his package up.
He finishes climbing the stairs to his room and closes the door, dropping the package on his bed and grabbing his utility knife to carefully cut it open. The books are carefully wrapped and the wolfsbane oil is in a separate little box inside the first package, surrounded by bubble wrap. It's a small bottle that kind of looks like the ones with essential oil, except with a dropper. He puts it on the computer desk and picks up the first book.
Manuscrits Malveillants looks a bit like his herb book, leather-bound and old-looking, but the pages are slightly thicker and it's clearly not handwritten while some parts of Secreta Naturae clearly are, which makes sense if it pertains to any magic that involves handwritten words. Ne Brûle Pas looks like a book he could have picked up in a regular bookstore, but maybe that's the point since it's supposed to teach a witch to go unnoticed. Both are written in French, which means he can understand maybe one-third of the whole thing – he'd stopped taking French when Lydia switched to Latin – but he knows Bonnie is still taking the class and actually understands and enjoys it, so it shouldn't be an issue.
There's something else in the package, he notices after setting both books on the bed, a small card with writing on it. He picks it up, noticing the writing seems to be an email address, and places it by his computer for later.
Stiles places the box aside and grabs the bottle of oil from the desk, examining it for a moment before coming to a decision. He opens it, using the dropper to pick up some of the liquid and placing the bottle on the desk once again before bringing the dropper closer, right over the hand that's not busy holding it. The smell has yet to cause him any reaction, so he mentally tells himself for science and lets a drop of wolfsbane oil fall onto his open palm.
Nothing happens.
Wonder why that happened :)
Next update will contain: a little bit of magic.