... Happy New Year? XD
The good news is my computer is more or less fixed (still has some issues but at least it's usable) so I'm back to writing! The bad news is writer's block is a pain and I've had to rewrite this chapter three times so far. The third time's the charm, right? Or at least it's what you're getting.
FFdotnet only edit: Dear readers, if you'll direct your attention toward the two most recent comments (Glitner and schorched halloween) you'll see two examples of wording, the first is blatantly rude and homophobic while the second is politely inquisitive. Be like scorched halloween and you'll go further in life than Reddit threads.
To answer said comment, though I've already addressed the issue of possible pairings for Stiles, I figure I should be more specific. Stiles is bi and is just as likely to get involved with either gender. Though I don't have any specific plans, it might happen. I will not, however, write anything explicit or that warrants a higher rating than the one on the fic.
Unfortunately, we don't have tags on this website but consider this a "don't like, don't read" warning.
October 4th, 2009
Hero Hair(4:52p.m.): Are you free?
Stiles stares momentarily at the text that interrupted his homework, wondering what Stefan could possibly want with him until the memory of a whole person shoved in the Salvatore cellar hits him. It feels like so long after the full day he'd had at the Bennet house, but it's only been three- oh, right, that's why.
The vervain is probably out of his system.
Stiles(4:54p.m.): yep
Stiles(4:54p.m.): b there in 15
Hero Hair(4:54p.m.): Ok.
It's easy enough to leave schoolwork for another time – yay procrastination – and flip through his recently named Supernatural Notepad for the list of questions he'd come up with for the news guy. Aunt Liz and Caroline are thankfully out – the first working and the latter doing something related to the school committee – so he doesn't have to explain his haste to leave or make up a reason why his cousin can't come along. He glances through the questions one last time before adding a final one and shoving the notepad into his pocket as he leaves.
The ride to the boarding house is filled with the sound of his foot nervously tapping against the floor, and by the time Stefan opens the door his anxiety seems about to reach an all-time high.
"So he's awake?" He asks, stepping past the vampire and into the house, "He's gotta be, right? For the whole compulsion thing to work. How exactly does that work, by the way? It's got to affect something in the hippocampus or the prefrontal cortex, has anyone ever been scanned while-"
"Stiles," Stefan places a hand on his shoulder to stall his pacing. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yeah, sorry," he makes a point of taking a deep breath and holding it before letting it out loudly as if the sound was equivalent to the expected effectiveness of it, "but you'd be lost without me," he points out, fishing the notepad out of his pocket and presenting the pages of questions to the vampire, "I'm just on edge, maybe it's the possibility of kidnapping charges, but who cares about a potential twenty-year sentence right?"
The eternal teen's expression tells him the possibility hadn't even crossed his mind, which might make sense for a nearly immortal being but still shows an incredible carelessness regarding the consequences of his actions, or at least their potential ramifications for people without a built-in imperius.
Is that a supernatural thing or a Stefan thing? He muses silently.
"It'll be fine," Stefan insists, though Stiles can't help but notice a slight waver in his tone and look at him questioningly, "Well… I should tell you, my compulsion isn't quite as strong due to my- lifestyle choices."
"You don't feed on humans, so your mojo isn't completely reliable, is that it?" He inquires incredulously. "Shouldn't you have thought about this before kidnapping the news guy?"
"It'll be enough," the vampire insists, way too confident for someone who apparently has the vampire equivalent of iron deficiency by choice.
But do I want to risk it? Is the real question in his mind.
"Give me a minute," he tells Stefan, leaving the notepad in his hands before moving further into the house and pulling out his phone.
Stiles(5:13p.m.): u busy?
Ms Cullen(5:13p.m.): not much, why?
Stiles(5:13p.m.): call?
"Sup?" Anna greets neutrally when he answers at the first ring.
"Hey, I've got bad news, worse news, and good-ish news," Stiles informs with faux cheerfulness.
"Love to hear it," she matches his tone in sarcasm, "what's it got to do with me? Need help?"
"Maybe," he replies after a glance back at Stefan, who was giving him the appearance of privacy by leafing through the notepad questions while probably eavesdropping on the call, "someone shot one of my vampire acquaintances with wooden bullets, but-" he adds before she can interrupt, "they're fine and the vervain is out of the shooter's system."
"The hunter's still alive?" Anna questions in surprise, with a tinge of disapproval.
"You can't interrogate dead people," he points out. He doubts Stefan would approve of killing the man now after all the waiting around, and he's in no rush to murder anyone himself if he can help it, thank you very much. "One hunter is an inconvenience, lack of information is lethal."
"You're not wrong," She thankfully agrees, "but where do I come in?"
"My vampire buddy is of the Cullen variety, I'd rather have a guarantee the compulsion will hold," he explains.
"Stiles-" Stefan hisses, looking up from the notes.
"Oh," Anna exhales in realization, "Hello, Stefan."
"Annabelle," the vampire greets neutrally from his spot by the entrance, and Stiles huffs in annoyance. "I said I could handle it."
No privacy at all.
"Stiles doesn't seem to think so, and he's right," she starts in a teasing tone but quickly turns serious, "You shouldn't take any chances with hunters. I can compel him for you, Stiles."
He trades a look with Stefan, who frowns and looks away for a moment before sighing and nodding in acceptance, "Fine, but it can't be here."
Stiles glances at the entrance to the cellar, the perfect place for this to happen, then back at Stefan with raised brows, "Why's that?"
"Zach is out working, he can't let her in," the vampire explains, clearing up exactly nothing.
"Can't we just open the door like normal people?" He suggests, confused about the issue.
"Oh, right, I forgot you're new to all this." Anna interrupts, "Vampires can't enter private residences unless invited in by the owners."
Well, that's reassuring to know. It's also something she hadn't mentioned during the brief vampire crash course, but this isn't the time or place to bring it up since she did tell him eventually. It does make him wonder how the hell Damon managed to place the phone box on his bed when Stiles knows for a fact the man hasn't been invited in yet.
"... but how do they know?" Stiles questions with an annoyed groan to disguise his racing thoughts, making Anna huff out an amused laugh. Stefan simply shrugs in response. "Right, not right now, uh- we could take him to the woods?" he suggests, already formulating a plan, "Somewhere close enough to where you found him to get to on foot but not too close that anyone looking for him will spot us. Preferably near a small cliff, if possible?"
"Doable," Stefan decides after a moment of thought. "I'll go get him, you bring the car to the back," he instructs and hands Stiles back his notepad before heading down the cellar.
"I'll be there in a few minutes," Anna announces before hanging up the call.
Stiles lowers the phone back into his pocket, staring at the ground for a moment and processing the last couple of minutes with slight incredulity over having to wrangle two vampires into a deal that ultimately benefits them.
What the hell is my life?
It's incredibly strange, watching the newsman – his name is Logan Fell but he's hardly bothered to remember it – stand still in the middle of the forest with a blank look on his face just as he's been told to. They're apparently a couple a couple of miles from the old Salvatore ruins, near the edge of a small cliff but with enough distance away that Stiles doesn't feel like he could trip and fall at any moment. Stefan had been silent the whole ride through, like some sort of compulsion supervisor standing there to make sure they didn't end up killing the guy, while Anna and Stiles had ended up filling the awkward silence through the ride with small talk about horrible vampire media. Stiles is pretty sure they got a smile out of Stefan at some point, even though he won't admit it.
"How did you know Stefan was a vampire?" Anna asks the first of the written questions after having compelled Logan to answer truthfully.
"The Gilbert watch pointed at him," the man replies in an even tone as if talking about the weather.
Stiles is both fascinated and freaked out in nearly equal measures, "How did you know it could do that?"
"I was told about it," Fell replies, which prompts another question which is quickly answered once again, "by Richard Lockwood."
"How did he get it? How did he even know about it?" Stefan interjects.
"One at a time," Anna interrupts, "How did you get the watch?"
"I had dinner at Jenna's," a small flicker of emotion can be detected by an up twitch of his lips, "and took it from Jeremy's room."
"That's just rude," Stiles mutters, offended on the kid's behalf. "How did Mayor Lockwood know it could become a vampire compass?"
"He read about it in one of the Lockwood ancestor journals," the newsman informs, to their dismay. If these journals are out and about, there's no telling who else may know this information.
Anna waits a moment and when no more spontaneous questions are forthcoming, she moves on to the next written one, "Who else knew you were out hunting for vampires?"
"Liz Forbes," Logan says, shattering the small hope Stiles still held out for his aunt not to be involved in the supernatural. Lovely.
"How did you know to use wooden bullets?" Anna moves on without pause, making Stiles wonder whether she knows he's related to the Sheriff. It isn't exactly difficult information to come across.
"I read about it in one of my ancestor's journals," Stiles huffs in annoyance at that, which is becoming the common answer to their questions.
"Who else has access to this information, via journals or otherwise?" He adds, hoping there's at least some sort of estimate.
"The Founders Council," is what they get, which narrows it down slightly but not quite enough.
Stiles interrupts before anyone can get another question in, "In your opinion, should you be released today, what excuse for your time of absence would be the least suspicious? Take into account your phone is broken and you no longer have the watch."
"I was attacked by a vampire, it was quick, it stole the watch and my car keys fell somewhere." Fell narrates after a moment of consideration, "I passed out and when I woke up, my phone was damaged in the scuffle so I had to walk somewhere to sleep and overslept until everything was closed yesterday. I walked home but was too tired to get anything done and too embarrassed to go tell Liz I lost the watch."
The three interrogators exchange a look and Stiles motions for Anna to go ahead and apply the cover story and make the man forget about them. It's certainly as believable as any other excuse he could come up with for the man's two-day-long absence, he figures. His thoughts are interrupted by Anna's eyes changing suddenly and her fangs dropping just as she lunges at Logan's throat.
"What the-" Stiles starts, just as Stefan calls her name and reaches forward, but she releases the news guy just as fast, tripping him down the short cliff. "...huh."
Anna turns back toward them, wiping off the blood from her lips as they watch the man roll down, "What, wasn't that the plan?" she frowns slightly at Stefan's clear disapproval, "gotta make it believable, right?"
"I'll let you take it from here," Stefan declares, abruptly speeding away.
Stiles stares at where the man had just stood a moment ago, "That's always so cool."
Anna snorts, "Come on, we still have work to do," she points out, starting to climb down toward where Logan Fell- fell.
"Coming," he calls, following right after.
Stiles takes one final look toward the moon outside before closing the door to his jeep and walking up to the boarding house, where the door opens before he can even touch the knocker. "So… it's taken care of," he informs probably unnecessarily.
"Good," Stefan nods, "did you need something?"
It's not exactly rude when he truly shouldn't have a reason to be back here yet again, and Stiles grapples with how to put his request into words before simply blurting out, "can I use your dungeon?"
"What?" Stefan can only stare at the strange request.
"Sorry, cellar, it just looks and feels like a dungeon," Stiles rephrases, "it's just- it's the full moon, if you hadn't noticed. I don't feel any different but I figured it'd be safer to be locked up anyway. So…"
Even if the wolfsbane didn't work, it could have been the wrong strain or maybe it's a myth like garlic is for vampires, he has no concrete way of knowing.
"... Sure, Stiles," the vampire caves after a moment, stepping aside for him to come in. "That was some quick planning," it takes him a moment to realize Stefan is talking about their afternoon shenanigans.
"When you've got a Sheriff for a parent and another for an aunt, you need some quick thinking to get away with any mischief," Stiles explains with a shrug. "By the way… why didn't you call Elena? I thought she'd want to be here."
He realizes that might not be a safe topic when Stefan's mood visibly falls, "Elena, she… doesn't want anything to do with all of this," he motions toward their surroundings, "she asked for nothing supernatural, and I'll respect her wishes."
"Huh," he can't fathom the idea of purposefully making himself ignorant, of not knowing what's going on right under his nose, but to each their own. "Fair enough."
He had plans to tell her about Jeremy already knowing about the supernatural, out of the little respect he has left for her and the kid being her little brother, but if she wants nothing to do with the supernatural then there's no real point in bringing it up. He'll leave it up to Jeremy whether to mention it or not.
Thinking of Jeremy, he's also reminded that he's from a founding family, one of which probably has at least one of the old journals Fell had mentioned during the interrogation.
"I'll go make myself at home then, shall I?" He prompts Stefan into action and they head down to the cellar, where the vampire hands him some blankets and a pillow before making sure to lock him in and leaving Stiles to his devices.
He slides down onto the now-covered bunk on the back of the cell and pulls out his phone, shooting the younger Gilbert a text.
Stiles(7:04p.m.): hey, u wouldnt happen to have some old ancestor journals would u?
Baby Gilbert(7:07p.m.): uhh maybe somewhere in the attic
Baby Gilbert(7:07p.m.): why?
Stiles(7:07p.m.): just curious
Stiles(7:08p.m.): saw a salvatore one that made it seem like all the founders had them
Stiles(7:08p.m.): any chance u could let me take a look if theres any?
Baby Gilbert(7:09p.m.): sure, I'll try to find them
Stiles(7:09p.m.): thx!
He closes out his messages and pulls up a random YouTube video to pass the time, stretching out on his temporary bed with a sigh and trying to get comfortable. He's in for a long night.
It's only when a repeated knocking pattern wakes him up the morning after and Stefan greets him with a shake of the head – nothing happened during the night – that he can't help but wonder… if he's not a vampire or a werewolf, what the hell kind of creature is he?
Anna wasn't even supposed to show up in this chapter but Stiles said NOPE we're not taking risks today and here she is. Sigh.
Hope you guys enjoyed that, can't wait to see who's still keeping up with the fic this year!