"Where are we going?" Scott asks Stiles as the brunette leads him somewhere.
"You'll see." He responded.
"'Cause we really shouldn't be out here. My mom is in a constant state of freak-out from what happened at the school."
"Well, your mom isn't the Sheriff, okay? There's no comparison, trust me."
"Is Y/n not coming with us?"
"No. I didn't want to bother her. So it's just a guy's night."
"Can you at least just tell me what we're doing out here?"
"Yes. When your best friend gets dumped-"
"I didn't get dumped. We're taking a break."
"All right, well, when your best friend gets told by his girlfriend that they're taking a break..." He stops and turns to Scott. "You get your best friend drunk." He holds up a bottle of Jack Daniels. Pretty soon the bottle clinks on the stone as Stiles sets it down, now half empty. He falls back with a sigh and looks up at the sky. Scott sits on the rock Stiles' head is propped on. "Dude, you know, she's just one... One girl." Stiles' speech is slightly slurred. "You know, outta so many, there's so many other girls in the sea."
"Fish in the sea." Scott corrects. He's as sober as ever like he hadn't drank any booze.
"Fish? Why're you talking about fish? I'm talking about girls. I love girls. I love 'em. I love especially ones with strawberry... No. I love ones with h/c hair, e/c eyes, y/h..."
"Like Y/n?"
"Huh? Why would... Actually yeah, exactly. Hey, how did you know I was talking about... About... What was I talking about?" He giggles. "Hey, you're not happy. Take a drink." He groans a bit as he sits up to grab the bottle again.
"I don't want any more."
He falls back again. "You're not drunk?"
"I'm not anything."
"Hey, maybe it's like... Maybe it's like not needing your inhaler anymore, you know? Maybe you can't get drunk as a wolf. Am I drunk?"
"You're wasted. Y/n would probably be scolding you by now."
"Yeah!" He holds his fist up for a bump but Scott doesn't do it. "Aw, come on, dude, I know it feels bad. I know it hurts. I know. Well, I don't know." He laughs. "But I know this. I know that as much as being broken up hurts, being alone is way worse." Scott furrows his brows at Stiles. "That didn't make any sense." He chuckles. "I need a drink." He sits up for a drink when another hand snatches it up.
"Well, look at the two little bitches getting their drink on." The dark skinned man says, his friend smirking at the teens.
"Give it back." Scott demands.
"What's that little man?"
"I think he wants a drink." The friend says.
"I want the bottle."
"Scott, maybe we should just go." Stiles says a bit nervously.
"You brought me here to get me drunk, Stiles. I'm not drunk yet." The man scoffs and takes a swig of the drink. Scott gets up and stands in front of the man. "Give me the bottle." The man shakes his head and Scott glares, his eyes glowing. "Give me the bottle of Jack." His voice is slightly distorted and his claws grow behind his back making Stiles perk up.
"Scott?" He calls worried. The man hesitantly offers the bottle and Scott snatches it, eyes back to normal, swiftly throwing it and smashing it against a tree. The teens walk away and Stiles stumbles a bit as he catches up to Scott. "Okay, please tell me that was because of the breakup. Or 'cause tomorrow's the full moon." Scott opens the passenger door for Stiles. "Going home now, yeah?" He falls into the seat.
...
"It's just weird. Everybody's talking about what happened the other night, and nobody knows it was us." Allison says as she, Lydia, and Y/n walk through the halls, the school having been reopened that day after the whole fiasco the other day.
"Thank you, for the protection of minors." Lydia sighs with a smile.
"Guys, do you think I made the wrong decision?"
"About that jacket with that dress? Absolutely."
Allison rolls her eyes with a smile. "You know what I mean."
"Hello? Scott locked us in a classroom and left us for dead. He's lucky we're not pressing charges or making him pay our therapy bills."
Y/n rolls her eyes. "Lydia, he was trying to protect us. I know Scott, better than both of you, and I know he wouldn't put us in danger on purpose. What he did, although it was frightning, was to keep us safe somehow."
Lydia scoffed a bit. "Sure."
Y/n sighs but perks up a bit when she sees Stiles coming around the corner, heading for the same class she and Allison had a test in. "Stiles!" She jogs to catch up with him as her friends continue into the room. He looks up at her a bit startled just outside the door. "Hey." She smiles at him.
"Hey. What's up?" He smiles back, a touch of nerves in his tone. What he had done with Scott was a bit fuzzy but one of the most clear parts was talking about h/c hair and e/c eyes.
"I never got the chance to thank you for the other day." He gave her a confused frown. "When we were in the Chem lab. You comforted me and I really appreciate it. I normally don't get so scared. I-" She sighs and glances down. "It's just... There was something about that situation that reminded me of when my mom was killed. Being chased and cornered... It just felt like that night all over again."
Stiles was mildly surprised. In all the years he and Scott have known her she almost never talked about when her mom died, only a few bits of what her mom was like. "It's, uh, it's no problem."
"I mean it." She gently grabbed his hand and smiled at him. "Thank you." After a moment of thought she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. When she pulled away to see his eyes as wide as saucers she smirked and winked, turning on her heel and striding into class. Stiles gaped after her even after she had left his line of sight. When he noticed more students going into the room he blinked and seemed to gather himself again before also going into the room. He glanced at Y/n when he sat next to her and he could see the faint smirk still on her face as she focused on her papers.
Scott walks in and stops a bit when he sees Allison. He stands in front of her and looks at her. Neither of them say anything and Mr. Harris looks at Scott when he gets to her desk when handing out the tests. "Mr. McCall, please take a seat." Scott moves and sits in front of Stiles. "You have 45 minutes to complete the test. 25% of your grade can be earned right now simply by writing your name on the cover of the blue book." Stiles jumps to writing his name, Y/n doing the same just to get that over with. "However, as happens every year, one of you will inexplicably fail to put your name on the cover, and I'll be left yet again questioning my decision to ever become a teacher. So let's get the disappointment over with. Begin." He presses the button on the timer and sits at his desk, the students start their test.
Y/n works on her test, everything seems to be going smoothly. She can ignore the scratch of pencils, the scrape of erasers, and the clicks of pens as she goes but it seems Scott can't as she feels the anxiety grow in him. She furrows her brows and glances at him without lifting her head. "Scott?" She whispers in question. He doesn't seem to hear her and eventualy grabs his bag and runs out of the room.
"Mr. McCall?" Mr. Harris calls after him. Stiles jumps up and follows with Y/n on his tail. "Mr. Stilinski! Ms. L/n!" Neither teen pays him any mind as they get to the hall.
"Scott?" Stiles calls looking one way.
"Stiles." Y/n gets his attention and he sees Scott's bag on the floor. They go over to it and Stiles picks it up.
"Scott?" He calls again but then pulls out his phone to actually call Scott. They follow the ring to the locker room where they hear the shower running. Stiles takes the lead as they cautiously walk towards the showers but he breathes a sigh of relief when they find Scott standing under the water without his shirt.
"Scott, are you okay?"
Scott pants as he turns the tap off and turns to them. "Guys, I can't..."
"What's happening? Are you changing?" Stiles asks.
"No. No, I can't breathe." Scott wheezes and Stiles quickly fetches his inhaler.
"Here, use this." Scott looks at him confused. "Come on, do it."
Scott takes the inhaler and takes a puff, his breathing returning to normal a moment later. "I was having an asthma attack?"
"Not really. You were having a panic attack." Y/n asnwered.
"But thinking you were having an asthma attack actually stopped the panic attack. Irony~" Stiles added in a singsong.
"How did you know to do that?" Scott asked.
"I used to get them after my mom died. Not fun, huh?"
Scott slightly shook his head. "I looked at her, and it was like someone hit me in the ribs with a hammer."
"Yeah, it's called heartbreak. About 2 billions songs written about it."
"And just as much art and poetry." Y/n added.
"I can't stop thinking about her."
"Well, you could think about this: her dad's a werewolf Hunter, and you're a werewolf, so it was bound to become an issue." Stiles chuckles a bit to lighten the mood but gets cut short when Y/n lightly jabs him with her elbow.
"That's not helpful." She muttered to him and he relents.
"Dude, I mean, yeah, you got dumped, and it's supposed to suck."
"No, that's not it. It was like I could feel everything in the room, everyone else's emotions."
Welcome to my world. Y/n thought. "It's probably the full moon." She suggests.
"So we'll lock you up in your room later just like we planned. That way the Alpha-"
"Who is not my guardian."
"-can't get to you, either."
"I think we need to do a lot more than lock me in my room."
"What, you mean because if you get out, you'd be caught by Hunters?"
Scott shakes his head. "No. Because if I get out... I think I might kill someone."
...
Later Y/n stands with Lydia and another girl waiting for Stiles and Scott to watch them practice. Lydia is trying to get her to make more friends and, while it's nice of her, Y/n isn't looking for any more friends than she has unless it happens naturally. Scott and Stiles come out of the locker room with the rest of the team, Stiles having just been put on first line as "Bilinski' and Scott being named Co-Captain.
"Are you not freaking out? I'm freaking out." Stiles says to Scott.
"What's the point? It's just a stupid title. And I could practically smell the jealousy in there."
"Wait," Stiles stopped them walking, "you smelled jealousy?"
"Yeah, it's like the full moon's turned everything up to ten."
"Huh. Can you pick up on stuff like, I don't know, desire?" He glances at the three girls down the hall.
"What do you mean desire?"
"Like sexual desire?"
"Sexual desire?"
"Yeah, sexual desire. Lust, passion, arrrousal." He rolls the 'r'.
Scott also looks at the girls. "From Y/n?"
"What? No, in general, broad sense, can you determine sexual desire?"
"From Y/n to you?" Scott has a slight smirk.
"Fine, yes, from Y/n to me. Look, it feels like things have been changing and I'm kinda crushing on her so I need to know if I have a chance with this girl, okay?"
While he normally would be happy about this admition, Scott's mood and attitude are being affected by the full moon too much for him to really notice. "Why don't you just ask her?"
"Well, to preserve an amazing friendship and save myself utterly crushing humiliation. Thank you, Scott. Okay? So, please, can you just go up and ask her if she likes me? See if her heartbeat rises, pheromones come out."
Scott rolls his eyes. "Fine." He walks off down the hall.
"Wh- I love you. You're my best friend in the whole world."
"Hey, Y/n? Can we talk for a second?" He asks once he gets to the trio.
"Sure. I'll see you later, Lydie." Y/n waves to her friend and the other girl as they walk off. He leads them to Coach's office and shuts the door. "So what's up?"
"Just I needed to ask you something. Do you, uh... Do you know if Allison still likes me?"
"Of course she does."
"Really?"
"Yes. I mean, obviously once you care for someone you always will in a way. Allison is just confused and upset. It's understandable from her point of view if you think about it. She was trapped in a school with a killer on the loose, her boyfriend throws himself into the fray and suddenly he locks her in a room. It's scary when you know everything, it's terrifying when you hardly know anything. I know you did it to keep us safe and I'm very grateful for that." She gives him a smile but it falls slightly when she feels the tension in the room shift.
"How grateful?" He looks at her intensely.
"I don't know what you mean by that." She said cautiously.
"I mean, how grateful are you?"
"As grateful as any friend wou-" She's cut off and her eyes widen as Scott suddenly kisses her. After a moment of shock she pushes him away and she stares at him angrily. "What the hell?! God, Scott, that was my-ugh!" She wiped at her mouth and shoved past him, storming out of the office. It's just because of the full moon. That's it, that's the only reason why he did that. Just the moon. She understood, but that didn't mean she was any less upset.
Scott walked to the lacrosse field and Stiles perked up when he sat next to him. "Hey. What happened?"
"What?"
"What do you mean, what? Did you ask her? Did she say anything? Did she say she liked me? Did she imply she liked me?"
"Yeah. Yeah, she likes you. In fact, she's totally into you." Stiles becomes too excited to notice Scott's strange behavior or Y/n's absence until they actually get on the field to practice.
"Scott, you okay, dude?" He doesn't answer. "Look, I know we just got good news and all, but there's still seven hours till the full moon, okay?" He can't say any more because it's Scott's turn to run the ball. He goes forward but two players team up to knock him on his back.
"Guess some people don't appreciate your new status there, McCall." Coach laughs. "Who's next?" He blows his whistle. "Let's go." Scott flips back onto his feet and Coach focuses on Stiles who was hesitating. "You have a problem with that, Bilinski?"
"What? Yeah, no." Stiles nods.
"All right, you're up, big boy. Let's go!" Stiles gears up but then Scott pushes him back with his stick. "That's it, McCall! That's the spirit! You earn it! Earn it, McCall!" Scott gets the ball again. He rushes forward, flips the two players and smacks Danny in the face to score the ball. Everyone rushes to the dazed goalie to check on him.
Stiles goes over to Scott on the side. "Dude, what the hell are you doin'?"
"He's twice the size of me." Scott defends.
"Yeah, but everybody likes Danny. Now everybody's gonna hate you."
"I don't care." Scott walks off and Stiles looks around for Y/n. She should have been there by now. He spots her far away on the sidelines looking upset and he goes to her.
"Hey, where were you?" He asked.
"Do you think you can take care of Scott by yourself tonight?" She suddenly asks.
He looks at her confused. "I, mean, yeah? Are you okay? What happened?"
"It's just... Earlier Scott wanted to talk to me and he asked if Allison still liked him. I told him she was just upset. And then all of the sudden he just kissed me."
"He kissed you?" He asked shocked and a bit hurt at Scott.
"Yeah." She frowned. "I mean, I get that it's just the full moon and he'll be better by tomorrow I'm just... I'm very uncomfortable around him right now."
"Yeah. Yeah, no, I'll be fine tonight."
She gave him a small smile. "Thanks."
"I'll, uh... I'll talk to you later."
"Yeah." She hugged him and he was quick to hug back before he let her go and watched her leave.
...
Stiles walks into the McCall house that night with a duffle bag. "Scott?" Melissa calls when she hears the door close but when she comes around she finds her son's friend.
"Stiles." He smiles at her.
"Key!" She notices the object in his hand.
"Yeah. I had one made, so..."
"That doesn't surprise me. It scares me, but it doesn't surprise me." He lets the bag drop and it makes a loud metallic clunk. "What is that?"
"Uh, school project."
"Mmm. Stiles, he's okay, right?"
"Who? Scott? Yeah. Totally."
"He just doesn't talk to me that much anymore, not like he used to."
"Well, he's had a bit of a rough week."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah, um... Okay, uh... Be careful tonight."
"You, too."
"Full moon."
"What?" He blurts shocked.
"There's a full moon tonight." She laughs. "You should see how the E.R. gets. Brings out all the nut jobs."
"Oh." He chuckles. "Yeah. Right."
"You know, it's, um, actually where they came up with the word 'lunatic'." And Mrs. McCall leaves for her job on that interestic note.
Stiles goes up to Scott's dark room and sits the bag down, turning on the light. "Oh, my God!" He exclaims once he sees Scott sitting in his chair in the dark. "Dude. You scared the hell out of me. Your mom said you weren't home yet." He moved the bag closer to show Scott what he got.
"I came in through the window."
"Okay. Uh, well, let's get this set up. I want you to see what I bought." He starts rummaging through the bag.
"I'm fine." He sounds anything but 'fine'. "I'm just gonna lock the door and go to bed early tonight."
"You sure about that? 'Cause you've got this kind of serial killer look going on in your eyes, and I'm hoping it's the full moon taking effect, 'cause it's really starting to freak me out."
"I'm fine. You should go now."
"All right, I'll leave. Well, look, would you just at least look in the bag and see what I bought? You know, maybe you use it, maybe you don't. Sound good?"
Scott slowly gets up from the chair and crouches down in front of Stiles and the bag. He reaches in and grabs a fistful of chains, holding them up. "You think I'm gonna let you put these on and chain me up like a dog?" He lets the chains fall.
"Actually, no." In one swift motion Stiles grabs Scott's wrist and the handcuffs he had in his pocket and cuffed him to the radiator. Stiles quickly backs away as Scott grunts angrily.
"What the hell are you doing?" He pulls on the cuffs but they don't budge.
"Protecting you from yourself... And giving you some payback... For kissing Y/n."
...
After a bit of leaving Scott by himself Stiles comes back with a bottle of water. "I brought you some water." He holds up a doggie bowl with Scott's name on the side and pours the water in it. He tosses the bottle aside and sets the bowl where Scott can reach it. He turns to sit outside the room and Scott throws the bowl, making water go everywhere.
"I'm gonna kill you!"
Stiles rounds on Scott angrily. "You kissed her, Scott, okay? You kissed Y/n. After I told you that I was liking her and that maybe I was liking her more than I- and, you know, the past three hours, I've been thinking, it's probably just the full moon, you know, he doesn't even know what he's doing, and tomorrow, he'll be totally back to normal. He probably won't even remember what a complete dumbass he's been. A son of a bitch, a freaking unbelievable piece of crap friend."
"She kissed me."
"What?"
"I said, she kissed me." Stiles scoffs and leaves the room, leaning against the wall out of sight. "She would have done a lot more, too." Stiles slides down the wall and closes his eyes to block out Scott's words. "You should have seen the way she had her hands all over me." He heard it from her, she wouldn't lie and even if she didn't tell him, he knows she isn't like that. "She would have done anything I wanted." He's just trying to provoke him. "Anything!"
It doesn't stop it hurting when he imagines it though.
...
Y/n stands outside of the Hale house, looking up at the scarred house with apprehensive eyes. She closes her eyes as the screams start up again and she tries to ignore them. It should be a bit easier by now, but for some reason this house is hard to ignore. She racks her brain for something to focus on and she remembers the first time she was there, what she listened to to block them out. Stiles' voice. With that she remembered his laugh and his rants he gets into when he's excited.
With a smile she opens her eyes, relaxed and no longer hearing the house's pain. Now to do what she came here for. "Derek?" She calls. "I know you're here. I need your help."
After a moment the Hale steps out of the dark house and looks down at her. "What?"
"Scott. He's gonna need help tonight. He's stressed and scared and he doesn't have a hold of his shifting yet. I need you to keep him from doing something stupid."
"Why should I? Thanks to him I'm a wanted criminal."
"He panicked and you were the easiest explanation. And besides, you're brothers, aren't you? You said it yourself."
"Why can't you help him? Use some charm or spell or something."
"There's only so much I can do to help but another wolf would help better."
He's quiet for a moment. "Fine."
She gives him a nod. "Thank you." Derek leaves and she starts to walk away but she pauses and looks in a certain direction. Scott's house. Something is pulling her, like a faint tug on her heart leading her that way. So she follows.
...
Scott tugs at the cuffs until his wrist starts to bleed but it still holds strong. "Stiles, please let me out. It's the full moon, I swear. You know I wouldn't do any of this on purpose." Scott tries but Stiles ignores him. "Please, Stiles, let me out. It's starting to hurt."
Stiles' arm twitches like he wants to get up and help but a hand stops him. "Don't." A voice whispers. He looks up to see Y/n next to him. He hadn't even noticed her come into the house but he's thankful she's there. "Don't let him out." She leans her head on his, something for him to focus on to ignore Scott's plea's.
"It's not like the first time." He continues. "It's the full moon. It's Allison... Breaking up with me. I know... That it's not just taking a break. She broke up with me. And it's killing me. I feel completely hopeless. Just, please, let me out."
"I can't." Stiles says.
The moon comes out from behind the clouds and as the light shines on him Scott panics and screams as he shifts. Y/n puts her hands over Stiles' from their place on his head, keeping her head on his, and gently squeezes. I'm here. She says. You're not alone. Scott screams and pulls at the cuffs endlessly until suddenly it does end. It's quiet. Y/n pulls away from Stiles as they look at the closed door. "Scott, are you okay?" He asks but there's no answer. "Scott?" They get up and Stiles opens the door but Scott's not there. Only bloody cuffs and an open window.
Stiles runs out of the house. "Stiles!" She calls after him and follows. He drives down the road, tapping the wheel anxiously. She doesn't say anything, knowing whatever she says won't ease his nerves right now. They end up coming across police cars and an amubulance. Stiles pulls over and jumps out asking for his dad. When the Sheriff shows up Stiles immediatly hugs him and Y/n watches from the Jeep. She smiles at them but it drops when she glances at the moon.
~~~
Published: 12/30/20
Edited: 4/12/22