The thoughts of those who bothered to comment (pretty much just AO3 readers) were taken into account. Let's see how Stefan's birthday plays out. Time for S01E08.
It's even a little longer than usual so... Enjoy!
November 1st, 2009
Stiles is running on four hours of sleep, a vervain-spiked plate of scrambled eggs, and two hours of gym training with Jeremy as he parks in front of the Salvatore Boarding House and heads to the front door, turning his enhanced hearing to the inside of the house like he's grown used to doing so he won't waste a trip or end up meeting people he'd rather not when he's over.
He's not avoiding Zach, no matter what the niggling little voice in his head that sounds eerily like Care has to say about him not having bumped into the man ever since finding out about the Founders Council's stance on supernatural creatures. It's not his fault that the man works long hours at the city archives and is coincidentally not home whenever Stiles stops by.
"That's it, Damon," he picks up an unfamiliar female voice almost too faint to hear and nearly tunes out of it – he doesn't need to know about what the vampire gets up to on his private time – when she continues in a slightly sarcastic-sounding breathy tone, "After a century, I finally realized death means nothing without you. Do me."
He nearly chokes on air at that. Huh, Damon's got another vampire over? Stiles mentally speculates, not stopping himself from shamelessly eavesdropping further in a need to know more. For safety reasons, he tells himself, since this is an unknown vampire in the same town as the people he cares about.
"Why are you so mean to me?" He hears Damon complain.
"Have you met you? You're not a nice person," The unidentified vampire replies matter-of-factly.
Stiles isn't sure he likes her very much, but maybe that's his protectiveness over his friends talking.
"Well, because I'm a vampire," Damon replies, only for Stiles to hear the woman say he's only the bad parts. "Teach me to be good," he continues in a clearly teasing tone, and the next thing Stiles hears are faint choking noises.
He's halfway to the back door – one he can kick in and not be very noticeable – when his brain registers the rest of the conversation he'd still picked up without turning off his enhanced hearing.
The older the vampire, the stronger they are, Stiles makes a mental note and belatedly adds, Damon feels threatened enough by this one to actually apologize.
A distinct lack of fighting sounds keeps him from outright breaking into the house and he makes his way back to the front instead, ringing the doorbell like the normal person he likes to think he is when one of his friends isn't being threatened by an older vampire in his own home.
"Stiles," Damon greets in a strange tone while opening the door and looking him up and down, "forgot to take off the Halloween costume?"
He rolls his eyes at the teasing, "You, Caroline and Anna need to leave my plaid alone," he informs while lightly pushing the vampire's chest so he'll move out of the way for him to come in.
"Now's not the best time," the vampire informs, refusing to budge.
"You're telling me I can't meet the centuries-old vampire that's hanging out with you?" He deadpans, not about to let the other hide whoever this woman is from him.
"It's rude to eavesdrop," Damon halfheartedly chides, but any further insistence on him leaving gets interrupted by the same voice he'd heard before.
"Damon," she calls from somewhere inside the house, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your nosy visitor?"
"I'd rather not," the man admits in a resigned tone.
"Too bad," Stiles tells him and finally gets his way when the man relents and steps aside for him to walk past the door, which he closes behind them.
The woman leaning on the closest wall to the door doesn't look like he expected her to. Well, he didn't expect much, but it still wasn't the young-looking – older than Stefan but probably younger than Damon at least appearance-wise – blonde with her hair on a loose side braid, gray t-shirt with sequins, dark jeans, and a pair of black leather boots. Paired with the cross earrings – ironic – and eyeliner, she looks like someone about to see an indie rock band, not a threatening, centuries-old supernatural creature.
Then again, Stiles doesn't really look like he can punch out a tree either, so he's in no position to judge.
"Hi," She greets with a smile that makes her look even younger – it's those chubby-looking cheeks, he's sure of it – and definitely has a mischievous edge to it. "I'm Lexi. How d'you know this asshole?"
"I'm Stiles," he replies nicely enough, "and he's my friend. How do you know him?"
"I'm a friend of Stefan's," She looks between the two with blatant curiosity, "I didn't know you did friends," she tells the man over Stiles' shoulder before gaining a speculative look, "unless you're doing-" She continues with a smirk.
Stiles splutters, "That's not- no!" He waves his arms in front of himself, flailing in a vaguely negative motion, and finds Damon's little chuckle less than helpful to the implication. "Whatever, I didn't know there was another vampire in town, so I guess we're all learning new things," he quips with some annoyance before fishing his phone from his pocket. "You got a phone number?"
Both vampires send him an incredulous look. "You're cute, kid," Lexi tells him, "but I've got a boyfriend."
Stiles gives her a narrow-eyed look and ignores the slight indignation at being called cute like he's an actual child. "Another vampire?" he asks just to be sure, "and is he gonna be around?"
"Why do you need her number?" Damon is finally curious enough to ask.
"I've been working on a fangs-off list," he informs his vampire friend. "And if she's friends with Stefan, she won't be dumb enough to try using anyone on it as leverage."
He's not sure if the looks he gets from the immortal duo are a good or bad thing, but when he leaves the house with Damon in tow – they'd changed the dinner plans for lunch plans the night before when Bonnie decided to sleep over at Stiles' so they could check out the grimoire together – he's got Lexi's number saved on his phone as 'Miss Hale'. Hey, he's already got a 'Miss Cullen' in his contacts so why not keep on with the Twilight theme? Throw enough white powder on her face and she'd probably make a decent Rosalie cosplay.
He sort of wants a werewolf's number now just to add them as Mr or Miss Black.
"We've got the daylight ring spell," Stiles tells Damon once the man climbs into his Jeep after a particularly judgy look at Roscoe which he'll only let slide because this is what he'd come over to talk to the vampire about in the first place and he's excited about it. "Which is both a lame and wrong name since it doesn't necessarily have to be a ring. I vote on rebranding to daywalker spell."
"Whatever you call it, most vampires would kill for one," Damon warns him, "Including the one you just met."
"Lexi doesn't have one?" He's genuinely surprised at that, "isn't she older than you and Stefan?"
"Older may mean stronger, but not necessarily well-connected," the vampire explains, and there's a charged moment of silence before he adds, "Katherine gave us our rings. Emily was probably the one who spelled them, so it makes sense for the grimoire to have the- daywalker spell on it" he emphasizes Stiles' version of the name indulgently.
Stiles has no idea how to even start on the whole Katherine subject, and he doubts Damon is up for a heart-to-heart in the middle of the day, so he blatantly ignores the mention, holds back his curiosity on how the Salvatore brothers got turned in the first place, and instead asks with probably less than the appropriate amount of tact, "do you want a new one?" At Damon's brief glance – gotta keep the eyes on the road after all – and raised brow, he elaborates, "I mean- if you don't wanna keep something she gave you, I can ask Bonnie to make something else, maybe an anklet? I've got a vervain one since It's harder to spot and grab, and-" a sudden stop makes him pause, but he realizes it's just a stoplight even though Damon is staring at him with a look on his face that Stiles can't quite place. "You don't have to, either. It's a cool ring," he assures, in case he messed up with the offer.
When it feels like it's almost been too long and the car is moving again, the vampire finally replies, "I'm good for now." and Stiles mentally cheers over apparently not having messed up. "But thanks, Stiles." There's another moment of silence, though a more comfortable one, before he speaks again, "So, you've got a vervain anklet. Should you be telling me that?"
"I trust you," he absently justifies. "Plus if someday I don't have it, you'll know a vampire might have me under their imperius," Stiles ignores the reminder that it's called a compulsion and goes on, "maybe I should have a visible backup, like a decoy? Or is that too paranoid?" he doesn't wait for a response before adding, "Y'know, Caroline's mixing vervain oil into her nail polish."
Stiles can't help chuckling at Damon's answering look of surprise mixed with a healthy dose of apprehension.
Hell yeah, no one should mess with my baby cousin.
"This place needs more restaurants," Stiles remarks once they've got a booth at the Mystic Grill for themselves. "Like, seriously, this is depressing. What if I wake up craving some tacos?"
Damon huffs out a laugh but doesn't disagree, "Then open one," he suggests instead, clearly joking.
"Nah, I'm not that good of a cook" Stiles shakes his head. He knows how to cook, and it's even tasty and most of the time healthy, but he can't see himself owning a restaurant and cooking for other people. "A bakery though, that I think I could do."
It's something he'd thought about before, in between wanting to go into law enforcement – there's a reason he kept snooping into his dad's cases – and wanting to work at a library or bookstore for constant free access to books at any time. After his mom – the one who taught him to bake and whose recipes he still reproduces from time to time so he'll remember how the whole house used to smell when she was alive – passed, that specific dream lost some of its appeal since he'd always imagined baking side-by-side with her, but it has yet to be as dead and buried as his mother.
Damon's surprised look isn't entirely unexpected, but it soon smooths out into a feigned pout, "I don't know, I have yet to taste anything you've baked."
Stiles snorts, "I have yet to bake anything besides pancakes, muffins, and waffles for breakfast," he informs, making it clear that it's not like he's been gatekeeping his baked goods. A thought crosses his mind and he can't help but ask, "How come you can eat, anyway?"
"So long as I keep a healthy diet of blood in my system, my body functions… pretty normally," Damon explains, sighing at Stiles' curious look of someone about to ask a ton of questions and elaborating, "Look, I don't know exactly how all of it works. It's magic, it won't make a whole lot of scientific sense," there's a small pause, a dark look crossing the vampire's eyes for a moment before he continues, "blood equals nutrients, which equals a working body. No blood? We starve until we desiccate."
"Desiccate?" He interrupts. "Not die?"
"No, but we wish we did," is the haunting response he gets. "Think living mummy. Constant pain that won't let you sleep but not enough strength to move a muscle, just existing in a constant state of hunger."
The thought of it makes his hair stand on end. No wonder Anna's mother had attacked him. "That… sounds like you're talking from experience," Stiles notes.
A noncommittal hum is the only answer to his implication.
"Stiles!" The cheerful exclamation interrupts his train of thought before he can ask another question and they turn their heads to spot Caroline nearly skipping over to them. "Damon," she adds to the greeting, practically shoving Stiles to the side to sit next to him in the booth, "guess who just had a date?"
"Blondie," Damon greets, and Stiles is unsure if this isn't some misguided ploy to try and make the vampire jealous or something – Caroline can get like that sometimes – but in reality, it's probably their usual habit of sharing most important news with each other coupled with her insatiable need to gossip.
"So that's why you left so early this morning," He realizes before continuing in a curious tone "And who, exactly, were you on a date with?"
Caroline stares at him, seems to have some sort of realization, and promptly clams up, crossing her arms in front of her chest and leaning back on their seat, "Not telling, you're not allowed to scare him off."
Stiles snorts, "Me?" He can't help but chuckle at the notion of anyone being intimidated by him. "I'm just one hundred and forty-seven pounds of pale skin, fragile bones, and sarcasm"
"Who could kill them with a flick of a finger," Damon unhelpfully adds.
Stiles rolls his eyes, "Except they don't know that, so it doesn't count."
When he looks at Caroline again, her expression is something between incredulous and amused. "I've got to pay a visit to Beacon Hills sometime," she decides in what seems to him to be entirely at random until she continues, "People there must be exceptionally awful for you to have this bad of a self-image." She tilts her head, "Either that or your self-awareness needs a lot of work."
"What are you talking about?" Stiles blurts out in confusion when a look at Damon just shows that the vampire is clearly entertained by the byplay and isn't about to explain to him what his cousin means.
After a frustrated groan, Caroline's reply comes in a resigned tone. "Stiles. I don't know how things worked in Beacon High, but here? You're one of the popular kids," at his incredulous look, his cousin continues to plow right on through Stiles' perception of himself. "First of all, you're popular by association from hanging out with me. I'm Cheer captain, head of the student's event planning committee, and hot," she raises a finger to keep him from weighing in on that. Not that he's about to say his cousin isn't beautiful, but… that's his baby cousin. She's not allowed to be hot until she's at least eighteen. "And so are you, especially after you drop the plaid and oversized hoodies," she adds with a pointed look at his current outfit, which is not too dissimilar from the one he wore on Halloween. "Plus you don't really talk to a lot of people at school besides our little trio, so you've got the mysterious air going on, and don't get me started on how the girls keep falling off the pyramids whenever you're a spotter during practice."
"I just thought they felt safer to get things wrong since I've caught them just fine before," Stiles tells her with a lot of disbelief coloring his tone.
"Well you thought wrong," she rolls her eyes, "they're literally just throwing themselves at you. Also, I'm pretty sure I've seen David checking your ass out at least a dozen times." That particular information gives him pause since he did notice something like that, but only thought Bance had been glaring at him during practice since he's on the same team as Tyler and Stiles is predisposed to thinking anyone associated with Lockwood is at least a little bit of an asshole, with the conditional exception of Matt Donovan. "In case that's more your thing," and now he's on the receiving end of an undeserved pointed look.
Stiles, still reeling from his cousin deciding to demolish the entire impression he held of his position in their school – and of himself in general really –, chooses to ignore the look entirely. "I hate you," he says instead, not really meaning it but still not about to unpack all of that in the middle of the Grill and all over his lunch.
"Now, since that's over with," Damon quips, breaking his amused silence and leaning slightly toward Caroline with a smirk that doesn't spell anything good, "Caroline, how about you do me a little favor?"
Her smile quickly turns into a narrow-eyed look of suspicion, "That depends. What is it, and what's in it for me?"
"I want you to throw a party," the vampire tells her and Stiles – who is just glad he's no longer the main subject of the conversation – can almost see the glow entering his cousin's eyes at the prospect, "Here, tonight," he adds and her enthusiasm dwindles slightly but doesn't abate. "I need a lot of people. Big crowd. Invite everyone."
"That's… a little last minute, but doable," Care decides after a moment of thought. "What is this for, exactly? I need details if I'm supposed to organize things."
"No particular reason," Damon shrugs and is immediately on the receiving end of two incredulous looks. "Listen, I've got something that needs to get done, and the party's a part of it, that's all. Means to an end," is all the information he gives. "So, can you do it?"
"Obviously," she huffs as if offended at having her party-throwing skills questioned. "Funds?"
Damon reaches for his wallet and pulls out one of the credit cards, holding it out to her. "I'll have Stiles text you the password," he holds on to it for a second when she grabs the other end, "Don't go overboard, and you can buy yourself something to wear to the party as payment." He releases it and Care looks like Christmas just came early.
Of course she's excited to go clothes shopping, Stiles muses, and is almost surprised that the speed at which she leaves their table to get to organizing doesn't generate little cartoon-like puffs of smoke.
"Okay, what was that for?" He asks Damon once she's gone.
"Just working on a little plan," the vampire seems to hesitate for a moment, as if considering his options, before adding, "to deal with the council." Stiles tenses at that and starts to protest, but he continues, "They're not letting it go, Stiles. I've been looking into it."
"My aunt-" he insists, but gets interrupted again.
"Will be fine," Damon drawls, "We're just solving the town's little vampire problem, is all."
He lets out a little huff of air, put out at being interrupted, but once his worry about Aunt Liz is put to rest he can't help but be curious. The last time Damon had a plan, Stiles only heard the bare minimum about it and got pulled into being the lookout. This time, he'd rather be in on the whole thing from the start.
"Alright," he decides and takes another bite from what's left of his already cold lunch – he couldn't exactly eat while Caroline was ranting at him – before asking, "What's the plan, then?"
"Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about," the vampire says in a teasing tone, but he's not buying it.
"If you don't want me to help you can just say so," Stiles informs. "But I'm good at plans. Remember the news guy?" he adds, since he'd previously explained how he'd hijacked Stefan's poorly thought-out plans and actually made sure the man wouldn't suspect a thing.
"It's not a nice plan," Damon warns, sounding both serious and challenging.
He hesitates for a moment but quickly decides to give into the control-freak impulses inside of him saying that it's best to have all the variables. "I don't care," he insists.
Once they're back in the car, the vampire apparently decides that Stiles knowing probably won't completely ruin the plan even if he doesn't agree with it, and he gets to hear the – according to Damon – diabolic scheme he's been brewing since that morning.
It's not nice, but he'd been warned about that, so he can't complain.
Still…
"Okay," Stiles decides after some deliberation, to the vampire's visible surprise.
"You sure?" Damon seems to blurt out, in need of verbal confirmation.
He tilts his head slightly, lips pursed in displeasure at the memory of what he overheard in the boarding house. "She threatened you," he points out, and his friend looks like he doesn't quite know what to do with that so Stiles quickly adds, "But I've got some suggestions."
Damon's resigned expression clearly says he should probably have expected that.
Caroline insists on dressing him up for the party. He caves, as usual, because it's a little thing that makes her happy and he doesn't honestly mind, but this time it makes him extra self-conscious to notice how fit the dark pants are, and how there's not a lot of extra space between his skin and the white shirt he's got on under the red leather jacket he's kind of getting attached to. He deliberately doesn't think about Caroline's earlier careless stomping all over his self-image, even if it was with good intentions.
Stiles doesn't like change, even if he's long since learned to be quick to adapt to it. The world won't wait for him if he clings to his own pace.
The party is loud once he steps into the Grill and makes him glad he's able to turn off his enhanced hearing. It looks like most of their class is also in it, but it's not like they have anything better to do on a Sunday night in Mystic Falls. Stiles takes a look around and beelines to the first familiar face he knows won't try to pull him to dance in the crowd.
"And who dragged you out of the house?" He can't help but ask.
"Believe it or not, Jeremy did," Elena tells him, still sounding surprised about it. "You?" She huffs out a laugh at his raised brows, which is the only reply she needs to guess. "Right, Caroline."
The brunette's eyes wander back to where they'd been before Stiles approached and he follows them with his own, stopping at the somewhat surprising sight of Stefan laughing next to- yep, that's Lexi, now sporting a cute black dress with a layered gradient from the waist down. "They look like they're having fun," he notes.
"Who even is that?" Elena asks instead, a little annoyance trickling into her tone.
"Lexi," Stiles replies, earning a look that tells him he better elaborate on that. "Stefan's friend, I think she got into town this morning. I met her when I stopped by the boarding house."
"Is she-" she hesitates, "Are they- you know…" another pointed look toward where the duo is playing pool.
He shrugs, "I only saw her for like five minutes." Stiles pokes her side so she'll stop staring and look at him instead, "Here's a thought, just talk to them yourself."
Elena shakes her head, "Nope, I'm good," she tells him, but her eyes still stray back to the smiling pair.
"You know what I'm not seeing?" He asks, earning an enquiring hum in response. "Caroline getting on his case about wearing plaid."
Satisfied with getting a small laugh out of her, Stiles moves over to where Jeremy seems to be trying to become one with the shadows in the corner of the walls and glaring at a very familiar back.
"If you glare a little harder, they might catch on fire," He teases, leaning on the wall next to the kid.
Jeremy scoffs, "I wish," and looks at Stiles instead. "Why do girls like jerks like him?"
It's a rhetorical question, but it still reminds him of Lydia hanging from Jackson's arm as they walk down the hallways in Beacon High. "I wish I knew," he admits with a sigh. "Did you come just to talk to her?" The easiest place to find someone who works as a waitress is their place of work, after all. Still, it might have been easier on any other day than the one they're hosting a party.
"Nah," the kid sighs, "Jenna's got someone over." At Stiles' curious look, he elaborates. "Logan watch-thief Fell. They're having a date," the word is said with obvious distaste.
"Try not to leave any vervain out in an obvious way," Stiles warns since the last thing he wants is for the news guy to see something and bring it to the council's attention. "Maybe don't let him see the journals either."
"Yeah, I got it," Jeremy nods, then tilts his head, "I think someone's looking for you," the kid motions toward Stiles' back and he turns around, spotting a head of wavy black hair he hasn't seen in some time.
"Hey, Anna!" Stiles calls instead of leaving, greeting the eternal fourteen-year-old with a smile when she walks over. "Anna, this is Jeremy Gilbert," he introduces. "Jer, meet my friend Anna Zhu."
"Jenna's nephew?" The vampire asks, making Jeremy frown slightly but Stiles figures she heard of him from Jenna herself if she went to the negotiations with her mom.
"You know Jenna?" He asks instead of answering, probably because the kid's never seen Anna around before — the wonders of small towns.
"My mom just bought a property from her," Anna explains. "We just moved here, she's opening a store. Natural healing kind of thing," she shrugs dismissively. "It's nice to meet you! I haven't met a lot of people my age so far."
Stiles barely manages to hold back a snort at that, "You'll be saying something different once you join us in school," he warns the teenage vampire. "Speaking of, why don't you ask Jeremy any questions you've got? You'll be in his year, won't you? Anyway, I gotta go find someone," he suggests and leaves before either kid – immortal or otherwise – can protest.
Anna could use some more friends from how happy she'd been on that shopping spree with Caroline, and Jeremy needs something to do other than glare at Vicki and Tyler's back.
It doesn't take more than an hour or so for the whole party thing to turn a bit much, and Stiles parks himself near the back door of the Grill, eyes scanning the bar until they finally meet a pair of blue ones and he tilts his head slightly in question. He watches as Damon glances toward the crowd, which lasts for about a minute, and then looks back at Stiles before standing and walking away.
Stomach twisting with nervousness, Stiles follows his cue and slips out through the back door before turning on his enhanced hearing. It doesn't take long for the short, cut-off scream to reach him and he winces before rushing to its location, stopping dead at the sight that greets him.
Oh god, that's a lot of blood.
Mentally slapping himself into moving before she bleeds to death, Stiles kneels next to the girl sobbing on the ground and puts pressure on her neck, trying not to think too hard on the warmth that slips between his fingers before he can get a decent grip on it.
"Sarah?" He calls, a little panicked and not even having to fake it because this isn't like the girls in the library that one time. It's messy and ugly and admittedly a little scary. "It's Sarah, right? Stay with me, okay?" Is what he tells his year mate — seriously, did it have to be one of them? He'll have to see them at school later, it won't be a pleasant reminder to have — while he digs into his pocket with his free hand and dials the emergency number.
It all turns into a bit of a blur from the moment he tells them his name and what he'd found outside the party, with officers rushing over and a paramedic taking the girl — who's still in some kind of shock — to the ambulance to finish fixing up her neck. It wasn't a serious wound, not something she would have died from, and he knew that. It had been the plan. That doesn't make the blood on his hands any less real.
Aunt Liz seems to agree with the issue because she takes him to the side with a bottle of water and an extra shock blanket to use as a wipe, and pours it over his hands until he's done scrubbing his classmate's blood from his skin.
She's alive, he tells himself one last time before pushing those thoughts away and focusing on his aunt's voice. "What happened?" She repeats, and the blanket-turned-towel is around his shoulders now, when did that happen? Huh.
Stiles takes a fortifying breath — stick to the plan, it's not a complicated one — and answers her question.
It's a little frustrating when he's told to go home while more cruisers start swarming in to surround the restaurant, but he doesn't protest — well, not more than enough not to seem suspicious — before hiding himself in a nearby alley and using his enhanced hearing to keep track of things instead.
He needs to listen for his cue, after all.
Enough time passes for him to get distracted by the deputies' gossip — and wow, more of them know about vampires than he'd thought — but it makes sense since they need Sarah to identify the attacker and that means waiting out the shock.
Stiles gets startled out of his distraction by a commotion and almost rushes out of his position when he spots Lexi throwing the arresting officers away from her like they're made of paper. He can't help but wince when one of them hits and shatters a cruiser's windshield. Damn.
But Lexi isn't running, even while his aunt shoots her. She's not cutting her losses, and this isn't where he was supposed to step in, but they're close enough and she's only a few steps away from his aunt and he's not about to let this happen for the sake of a goddamn plan.
"Aunt Liz!" he yells, jumping in front of her — he'll get an earful about stepping in front of a gun but that's a future Stiles problem — and pushing the vampire away from his aunt with plain old human strength while whispering "Take me hostage if you wanna live."
Despite asking for it, he still yelps in surprise when the blonde speeds right up to him from where she'd stumbled back after he pushed her and pulls his arms like a blur that only stops when he's got her back to her and both wrists locked behind him in one of her hands while the other holds him still by the neck.
"Stop or the kid dies," Lexi yells even though Aunt Liz already motioned for the only approaching deputy to stand down.
Holy shit, Stiles thinks, wide eyes meeting his aunt's visibly terrified ones — and isn't that a punch to the gut even with the reminder of what she thinks supernatural creatures deserve — as he tries very hard not to let out a very much not fearful noise because he can't move and Lexi's breath is tickling right behind his ear and fuck teenage hormones, this isn't the time.
"Let him go!" Aunt Liz demands, apparently forgetting every negotiation protocol in existence, and Stiles winces when the blonde's hand on his neck moves to pull on his hair instead, exposing the side of his neck. The hot breath that meets the suddenly very vulnerable spot lets him know exactly what kind of threat the vampire is making even if he can't see the fangs from his position. "Don't!"
"Then back off!" Lexi demands right next to his ear, making him flinch. Useful for the act, but not very good for his hearing. "All of you!" She adds, stepping away and pulling Stiles backward with her. "I'm walking to the end of the road, and then I'm leaving" she informs them, to some visible surprise. "Any funny business and the kid's dead."
"Okay, alright," Aunt Liz has apparently calmed down enough to at least respond without panic lacing her voice. "Just- don't hurt him."
"Then don't make me," Lexi tells them as she lets go of his hair, taking another step back and then continuing that way, slowly backing away from the officers. "What the fuck was that, Stiles?" She asks in a low voice when they're mostly out of hearing range, though not out of sight.
"I wasn't letting you hurt my aunt!" He hisses right back.
"She shot me!" The blonde protests, sounding both pissed and rightfully upset "I didn't do anything!"
Stiles sighs, sagging a little on her hold, because isn't that the truth? "She doesn't care, apparently." To be fair, his aunt is probably pretty convinced that all the vampire attacks so far are solely Lexi's fault. And now, thanks to Stiles and Damon, the future ones will probably be blamed on her as well. "Just- get out of town."
The vampire huffs but loosens her grip on his wrists enough for him to feel the blood start to circulate again. "Why do I smell Damon all over this?"
Stiles immediately tenses, then turns his head slightly to meet her eyes. "If this was Damon's plan," he informs, tone dead serious, "You'd be dead."
It's not a lie. It's also the most efficient way to get her mind off the truth.
"Fair enough," Lexi decides, and then he's being pushed away- right into a deputy that tried to sneak close from behind.
When he looks her way again, Lexi's nowhere to be seen.
"What did you think you were doing?!" Aunt Liz exclaims once they're back in the safety of their home, Caroline fast asleep in her room and not about to wake up due to anything short of a natural disaster.
"Saving you from- from that!" The words feel like ash in his mouth. He put her in that situation in the first place, didn't he? That was the plan. "What was that?" he asks, disguising his distress as confusion.
His aunt seems to visibly deflate in front of him, the anger leaving her through a heavy sigh as he shoulders sag and her expression turns pained, "Not anything you should have had to worry about."
Stiles scoffs, and it's entirely too real. "I think we're way past that."
Stiles is only now realizing that having ambiguous morals and acting on them are two different things and hey, maybe this isn't all fun and games and superpowers.
So, what do you guys think about the plan? 'cause I had fun working something out.
Damon: Here's the plan... two people die and another is traumatized.
Stiles: ... great plan, but let's not do that and also give ourselves an excuse for the next body that a vampire inevitably ends up dropping.
Sometimes I regret only writing this story from Stiles' POV. Then I realize how much more work it would be to do otherwise and that feeling passes lol. You'll just have to deal with having a limited view of things, sorry.
Guys... Rosalie Hale is a vampire in a movie that canonically exists in my fanfanfic. To be fair, any media produced up to the date the fic is set in exists in it unless it's related to TW or TVD but... A Hale vampire lmao. I wonder if having a number saved as Miss Hale will have any repercussions XD and hey, If you're getting tired of Twilight references, just wait till I read Interview With The Vampire then I'll have new material since the books (1976) and the movie (1994) are viable references even if the new Prime Video series isn't.
Anyway, idk if you guys have noticed but I think I need a list to keep track of every canon relationship I've messed up already lol. Jeremy and Vicki are having issues because she's still alive Jer doesn't wanna be high 24/7 anymore an has a new outlet for his feelings aka beating tf out of Stiles in the gym. Stefan and Elena don't have an on-again-off-again thing because Vicki didn't get turned so there's been no strife to stimulate those teenage hormones into an early love confession (that didn't really make sense in canon tbh) and instead they're still mostly on the "Elena wants nothing to do with the supernatural" phase. Caroline and Matt don't start hanging out after this chapter's party since she's not lonely, she has Stiles, and also isn't being verbally abused by Damon. Jenna and Logan are dating since he's not, y'know, dead or turned into a vampire... Yeah, it's a big list.