(New intro for 3a Ãwà I made the purple eye all glowy myself, frame by frame ð it was only like 16 or so frames but it still took a lot of trial and error to get it just right. Hope you like it ð¥°)
(Edit: I fixed up the gif, added a watermark and made the glowy eye look nicer :))
...
In a small tattoo parlor, a big boy of a tattoo artist looks at a simple drawing of two bands, reference art from his client of what they want. "Boy, it's a good thing you drew me a picture." He says sarcastically. Scott, the man's client, smiles at him as he sits in the chair.
"Hey, Scott, sure you don't want something like this?" Stiles holds up a portfolio and shows off a drawing that was a more comic book style of lizard man. Scott gives him a look. "Too soon? Yeah." He continues to flip through the book. "I don't know, man, are you sure about this? I mean, these things are pretty permanent, you know."
"I'm not changing my mind."
"Okay, but why two bands?
"I just like it."
"But don't you think your first tattoo should have some sort of meaning, you know, or something?"
"Getting a tattoo means something."
Stiles chuckles a bit. "I don't think that's-"
"He's right," The artist cuts in from his perch beside Scott, "tattooing goes back thouasands of years. The Tahitian word 'tatua' means 'to leave a mark'. Like a right of passage."
"Yeah, you see? He gets it." Scott looks at his friend.
"He's covered in tattoos, Scott, literally." He adds looking at the man.
"Okay, you ready?" The artist asks Scott. Scott nods and braces himself. "You, uh, ain't got any problems with needles, do you?"
Scott shakes his head. "Nope." The tattoo gun starts to buzz and the man puts it to Scott's arm. "I tend to get a little squeamish though, so..." Stiles trails off as he watches the needle mark Scott's skin and promptly passes out. Soon enough they're climbing back into Stiles' Jeep, the pale boy holding an ice pack to his head.
"Too bad Y/n wasn't there. She could have caught you." Scott snickers. "Or at least make it stop hurting."
"Yeah, well, the best I'm gonna get right now is this ice pack." He sighs a bit. He wouldn't really say it out loud, but he missed her. About a month after Allison left to France for the summer she had called Y/n and told her she had found another witch by the name of Genevieve. She had excitedly called Stiles about it soon after and he had barely gotten time to say goodbye to her before she flew off to Paris where she's been the last three months learning new things, gaining more control of herself, and adding new pages to her grimoire. She had called and messaged him as much as she could but it still wasn't the same as her actually being right in front of him or right in his arms. He shook himself out of his reverie and looked at Scott who is now looking at his bandaged arm. "You okay?"
"Kinda burns."
"Yes, you just had your skin stabbed about 100,000 times with a needle."
"Yeah, but I don't think it's supposed to feel like this." Stiles puts the ice pack down and Scott suddenly jumps with a grunt of pain. "Oh, God. No, it's definitely not supposed to feel like this. Oh, I gotta take this thing off." Scott starts to remove the bandage.
"No, no, no, no, Scott. Oh, Scott, please stop." Stiles whines in protest. But they fade when they see what's happening to Scott's arm. "Whoa, whoa." The skin around the black bands is beet red.
"Oh, no, what? No, no, come on." The red fades, but with the ink however, and his skin becomes umblemished as it was before. "It healed." He says unbelieving.
"Ah, thank God. I hated it." Scott gives him a look which he notices. "Sorry." He starts the car and drives off.
"It is not a double date." Lydia denies as she drives. "It is a group thing. I would ask Y/n, but she doesn't want to."
"I have a boyfriend, in case you forgot, Lyds. I don't need a date." Y/n smiled at her friend as she leaned forward in the space between the front seats.
"Whatever."
"Do they know it's a group thing?" Allison asks from the passenger seat. "Cause I told you that I'm not ready to get back out there."
"You were in France and didn't do any dating for four months?"
"Did you? I mean, after-"
"Do not say his name."
"Is he okay? I mean, did everything work out?"
"The doctors looked like total idiots when he turned up alive, but everyone got over it. And yes, Derek taught him the Werewolf 101, like how not to randomly kill people during a full moon."
"So then you've talked to him?" Y/n teased as she and Allison shared a glance.
"Uh, not since he left for London."
"You mean since his dad moved him to London."
"Whatever, he left. And seriously, an American werewolf in London? Like that's not gonna be a disaster." Y/n laughed.
"So you're totally over him?" Allison questioned.
"Would I be going on a double date if I wasn't?" Allison chuckles and Lydia catches her mistake. "Yes, it is a double date. It's not an orgy. You'll live." Lydia stopped at a lonely red light. Suddenly Y/n lets out a quiet gasp as she sensed something, or rather someone, and looks to the left, past Lydia, with a smile.
"Nah, we agreed to give each other the summer- no texts, no calls." Scott explains to Stiles as they pull up to the red light.
"So then how do you know she won't be back at school then?" Stiles looked to his friend only to look wide-eyed at the car next to them where Lydia, Allison, and a beaming Y/n reside. Y/n waved her fingers making him smile.
"After everything that happened, I'm not sure she's coming back at all."
"I think she is. I'd say pretty definite, you know. Like one hundred percent."
When Scott gives him a confused look at his words and his big smile Stiles nods and points to the car. Scott turned and seemed breathless when he saw Allison just past his friend, all the girls laughing at something Lydia had said. When Allison notices Y/n looking past Lydia she follows the h/c's gaze. Her and Scott's eyes meet and the boy ducks away. "Oh, my God. Oh-"
"Oh, my God." Allison looks away shocked. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God." She freaks. Lydia looks over and Stiles gives a small wave. "I can't see him, not now."
"Allison, it's okay." Y/n tries to assure.
"Can we just drive please, Stiles?" Scott is freaking just as much.
"Scott, it's a red light."
"Lydia, go. Just go!" Allison begs.
"But the light." The redhead protests.
"I think we should talk to her, I think we should just say something." Stiles says.
Scott shakes his head. "No. No, no, Stiles, come on." Stiles leans over him and cranks down the window. "Oh, my God, dude, no."
"Hey!" Stiles yells out to them. Y/n smiles and goes to say hi as well when Lydia steps on the gas, the tires squealing and the h/c girl yelping as she's suddenly falling into the back seat. "You know, they probably didn't see us."
Allison sighs in relief. "You all right?" Lydia asks Allison and the brunette nods.
Y/n straightens up and pouts a bit as she glances through the back window. "That was my boyfriend back there."
"And that was Allison's ex. That goes before current flame."
"She can't avoid him forever." She said realistically.
When the light turns green Stiles starts down the same road as the girls, ending up driving behind them. "What are you doing?" Scott asked.
"I'm driving."
"We're right behind them."
"Okay, well, do you see any turns?"
"I don't want it to look like we're following them."
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
"I don't know, anything." Stiles steps on the brakes, screeching to a stop in the middle of the barren road.
Allison turned back to see the stopped car. "Lydia, stop. Y/n's right. We need to go back and talk to them." Lydia obeys and stops in the middle of the road. The boys look at each other when that happened. All three girls were looking back now. "They stopped too. Why would they stop?"
"It's Stiles and Scott. Do you really wanna try applying logic to those two?" Lydia said.
Y/n started to look at the girls. "Scott's probably freaking out as much as- LOOK OUT!" Y/n spotted the shape hurtling towards them, throwing her hands up and making a small shield of energy. It wasn't strong enough to stop the deer crashing through the window as the two screamed but it was enough to keep them from being hurt by the shards. The three jumped out just as the boys ran to them.
"Are you okay?" Scott asked as soon as he got to Allison.
"It came out of nowhere." Lydia said as Y/n pulled her away from the car.
"Are you hurt?" Stiles asked the two when he got to them.
Y/n shook her head. "No. We're fine." She breathed.
"It ran right into us."
"Are you okay?" Scott asked Allison again.
"I'm okay." She assured shakily.
"Well, I'm not okay." Lydia let out a sharp breath. "I am totally freaking out. How the hell does that just run into us?" Y/n and Scott moved around the car to look more closely at the animal, Y/n putting a hand to her mouth at the sight of the poor creature. "I saw it's eyes right before it hit us. It was like it- it was like it was crazy."
"No, it was scared." Scott said and put a hand on the deer's neck.
"He was terrified." Y/n said. She could feel it like a thick blanket. Scott looked at the full moon and Y/n frowned. First night back home and there already was a bad omen.
...
The next morning Stiles is typing away at his computer while his dad watches from his bedroom door. "You know how many vehicle collisions last year involved deer? 247,000."
"Oh, God, please go to school." Noah pleads.
"But that's crossing the road. This one last night came right down the middle." He doesn't move.
"I'm not gonna beg you." Noah moves to stand closer behind him.
"Okay, good. I'm impervious to your influence anyway."
"Would you consider a bribe?"
"You couldn't meet my price."
"Extortion?"
"You got nothing on me."
"Girlfriend?"
"What?" Stiles whips around to look at his dad and spots Y/n with her arms folded and a raised brow standing in his doorway.
"Stiles." She calls.
He shakes his head and continues to type, determined to resist his girlfriend's influence. "I can't. Nope." Noah leaves the room as she cracks her knuckles. She strides up behind him and she starts to pull his chair away. "What are you doing?" Stiles reaches as far forward as his body will let him as he tries to continue typing.
"First day back to school and first day back home-"
"Y/n, what are you doing?" His hand shakes as he struggles to reach.
"-thought my boyfriend would be a little more happy to see me." Stiles falls and a thud sounds through the room. Y/n puts a hand on her hip and looks down at the boy. "Give up?"
He sighs. "Yeah." She holds a hand out to him and he grabs it, letting her help him up. She pulls him forward and smirks at him when they're chest to chest.
"Hey there, lover boy."
"Hey." He leans in and presses his lips to hers, she eagerly reciprocates. They had to get to school but taking a few moments to enjoy something like this was much needed. After all, they hadn't seen each other for three months. He smiles into the kiss when his thumb brushes over the ring he gave her, something she hadn't taken off since she recieved it.
They beamed when they pulled away and Y/n glanced up at his hair. She reached up with her free hand and gently ran her fingers through the longer locks. "I like it." She finally said making him chuckle. "Come on. We gotta get going."
"Okay, but one more thing." He gave her another quick kiss before he let her pull him away. At school Scott and Stiles had informed Y/n of the tattoo mishap last night right before Scott revealed his plan to get it back. "You wanna ask Derek for help? Why, why?"
"He's got the triskele tattooed on his back. So there has to be a way to do it without it healing, right?" Scott asked.
Y/n shrugged. "I don't see how it could hurt to ask him."
"Okay, yeah, but still, doesn't he have his hands a little full?" Stiles gestured to the two MISSING posters sporting Boyd's and Erica's picture. Suddenly a voice coming from the Principal's Office caught their attention.
"Look, these are the applicatons for the career advisor. I need them sorted. And whatever happened to the library while I was gone, I want it cleared up." The three poke their heads around the corner and peer into the room seeing their previous principal talking to a staff member. "And what the hell it this?" He holds up Gerard's broad sword, something that had apparently been left behind.
The three teens glance at each other and Stiles then urges for them to leave. "Go, go, go." In English Stiles sits with Scott to his right and Y/n on his left. Lydia takes the spot in front of Y/n and when Allison comes in, the only spot left is right in front of Scott.
She looks around but steps next to the desk. "Is someone-" She lightly gestures to the empty desk.
"No. No, no, no, no. No, it's all you, all yours. Uh, it's totally vacant." Scott rambles. Allison gives him an amused smile and when he glances at his friends, they both give him a thumbs up. Y/n got a sudden chill down her spine making her shudder unvoluntarily. She could feel something in the air. Something dark. Then suddenly everyone's phones start going off. Curious the students pull out their phones. Everyone has recieved a text from an unfamiliar number, a voice soon reading what was sent.
"'The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway, leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness'." A woman with brown hair walked into class, reading the text from her own phone and leaned against the teacher's desk. "This is the last line to the first book we are going to read. It is also the last text you will recieve in this class. Phones off, everyone." The new teacher sits at the desk as the class obeys. After a while the principal walks in and whispers something to the teacher. "Mr. McCall?" Scott looks up and she gestures for him to follow her. He gather his stuff and they leave the room.
Y/n listens and finds out Melissa had asked Scott to leave school. The new teacher is aware of Scott's track record and gently warns him that she doesn't want him falling into bad old habits. Scott promises it won't be ephemeral before he leaves. Stiles sighs and leans back, glancing at Lydia and her shoes, noticing a bandage on her ankle. "Hey, Lydia." He whispers and points at her ankle when she looks at him. "What is that? Is that from the accident?" Y/n looked at her ankle at this and spotted the bandage as well.
"No. Prada bit me."
"Your dog?"
"No, my designer handbag. Yes, my dog."
"He's never done that before." Y/n commented.
"What if it's the same thing as the deer?" Stiles asked. "You know, like, how animals start acting weird right before an earthquake or something?"
"Meaning what? There's gonna be an earthquake?" Lydia asked skeptically.
"Or something. I just- maybe it means something's coming. Something bad."
"It was a deer and a dog. What's that thing you guys say about threes? Once, twice-" Just then a black bird slams into the window next to Y/n, making everyone jump and leaving a bloody mark on the glass. Y/n frowns at the window and grips the edges of her desk. Fear and panic are coming. The teacher walks to the window and stares in wonder at the large flock of black brids flying towards the school. She jumps back when more begin to crash into the window and die. Y/n ducks just before the first one breaks through the window.
It's chaos as more follow the first. "Get down, everyone!" The teacher yells and the room is filled with screams and caws. Y/n pulls Lydia down with herself and the girls huddle with Stiles under a desk. The teacher yells more for the students to get down. Some of the birds claw and peck at the students they end up landing on. Once everything's calm, everyone hesitantly gets up from the ground, feathers and a few papers fluttering to the floor. The room is a mess of scattered desks and papers, black feathers, broken glass and rattled teens. Y/n grabs Stiles' hand. Something like this is an omen, a warning of something big coming. What that was she didn't know, but it was going to be bad.
Soon enough the police are there, Chris Argent also coming for Allison when he heard. Y/n lays her head on Stiles shoulder while they lean on a desk. Stiles looks over at the traumatized teacher. "Ms. Blake?" He calls. "You okay?" Y/n lifts her head when he moves to check on the teacher. Her hand reaches out to stop him but she hesitated, not quite sure why she wanted to stop him from going near the woman. Ms. Blake lightly nods, still not really paying attention when he stands near her. Then he notices a feather sticking out of her hair and reaches up for it. He apologizes when she shies away. "Uh, sorry, just-" She shies away a bit more still when he finally grabs it and lets it fall. "That."
"Stiles." Y/n calls. He goes back over to her and she took his hand, gently touching the scratch marks on the back of it. "Do you want me to heal these later?" She spoke quietly when she looked at him.
He shook his head. "Nah, it's fine. You shouldn't waste energy for something as small as this."
"When it comes to you, nothing is small." He smiled at her and pulled her into a hug. When they pulled away and leaned back on the desk, they looked at Noah as he passed, going to the Argents.
"Mr. Argent, you wouldn't have any insight into this, would you?" Noah asked.
"Me?"
"Yeah. All this bizarre animal behavior, it's- you must have seen something like this before, right?"
"I'm not sure why I would or why you would think I would."
"I'm sorry. I, uh, I could've sworn I overheard my son talking about how you were an experienced hunter." He gestures to Stiles and Chris glances at the pair.
"Ah, right. Well, not anymore."
Noah nods and looks at Allison. "You all right?"
She nods. "Yeah." When Noah walks away Y/n lightly smacks Stiles on the back of the head making him whine in protest.
"Why?" He asked.
"You know what you did." Was all she answered with and he frowned because he in fact did know what he did. She stood up and pulled him by the hand out of the class. "Call Scott."
And he did just that, talking as soon as his friend answered. "We got a serious problem at school. Ms. Blake's class-"
"Hey, can you tell me about it later?"
"Uh, well, no, pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion."
"All right, then meet me at Derek's house."
"Derek's house, what? What the hell are you doing at-"
"Just meet us here, okay?"
Scott hung up and Stiles sighed. "Great, we're going to Derek's house."
"It'll be fine. Come on." She took his hand again and they went to the Jeep, driving to the Hale house to meet up with the wolves. When they got there Scott had his jacket and over shirt off and was sitting opposite Derek. The couple stood behind their friend as Derek shifed his eyes and looked at Scott's arm.
"Yeah, I see it." His eyes shifted back and motioned over the previously marked spot. "It's two bands, right?" Scott nods. "What does it mean?"
"I don't know. It's just... Something I traced with my fingers." Scott reached over to the old table beside them and drew a small circle with one finger and a bigger one around it with two in the dust and dirt.
"Why is this so important to you?"
"Do you know what the word 'tattoo' means?"
"To mark something." Stiles supplied with a proud grin.
"Well, that's in Tahitian. In Samoan, it means 'open wound'. I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned 18. I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, to make it kind of a reward."
"For what?" Derek asked.
"For not calling or texting Allison all summer. Even when I really wanted to, even when it was so hard not to sometimes. I was trying to give her the space she wants." He sighs. "Goin' four months later, it still hurts. It feels likes a, uh..."
"Like an open wound." Y/n finished softly.
"Yeah."
Derek grabbed his tools. "The pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt."
"Ah, that's great." Stiles remarked.
"Do it." Scott urged.
Derek turned on the blow torch and sparked the flame. "Oh, wow. That's a- that's a lot for me. So I'm gonna take that as my cue. I'm just gonna wait outside."
"Nope." Derek grabbed Stiles as he passed and pushed him back next to Y/n. "You can help her hold him down." Y/n and Stiles braced themselves, Y/n pressing on his left shoulder, the side that really needed to stay still, with Stiles pressing on the right.
Derek took Scott's arm and held up the torch. "Oh, my God." Stiles really doesn't like this plan. Derek turns his hand and directs the flame onto Scott's arm, searing the flesh. Scott screamed in agony and Y/n held him down more firmly when he started to writhe. Scott half shifted from the pain, eyes glowing and fangs bared as he screamed.
After a bit he suddenly gasped awake, sweat coated his skin. He looked down at his arm to find his brand new tattoo standing bold and proud against his skin. "It worked." He smiled at the three.
"Looks good." Y/n gave him a thumbs up.
Scott puts his over shirt back on, the long sleeve rolled up so he can admire his body art a bit more. "Well, looks pretty damn permanent now." Stiles commented as the trio makes their way to the door.
"Yeah." He rolls down the sleeve. "I kind of needed something permanent. Everything that's happened to us- everything just changes so fast. Everything's so, uh... Ephemeral."
"That's the second time I've heard you use 'ephemeral' today." Y/n noted.
"Studying for the PSAT's?" Stiles asked him.
"Yep."
"Nice."
Scott opened the door but paused when he noticed the fresh coat of red paint on the front of it. "You painted the door." Derek looked over at the teen as he looked back at him. "Why'd you paint the door?"
"Go home, Scott." Derek lightly warned.
Scott doesn't listen as he runs his hand over the surface. "And why only one side?" He brought his claws out and scratched some of the paint off, revealing a black mark on the original surface.
"Scott." Derek went over to stop them.
"Let me." Y/n offered. He put his claws away and she put her hand on the door, her eyes flashing as the red paint flaked off completely and finally showed what Derek was trying to hide. A triskele, but not the flowing swirls that Derek sports on his back. The lines were sharp and angular, almost aggressive in their shapes. (I saw someone describe it as a lazy swastika and I can't unsee it XD)
"The birds at school and the deer last night- just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the Alpha." Scott realized.
"How many are there?" Y/n asked.
Derek sighed. "A pack of 'em. An Alpha pack."
"You've got to be kidding me."
"All of them?" Stiles asked. "How does that even work?"
"I hear there's some kind of a leader. He's called Deucalion. We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac, and I have been looking for him for the last four months."
Scott stepped forward. "Let's say you find them. How do you deal with an Alpha pack?"
"With all the help I can get."
"Where is she?" The four looked at Isaac who was now awake and sitting up. "Where's the girl?"
"What girl?"
~~~
Published: 3/31/21
Edited: 4/12/22
And that's the first chapter of 3a! I'm so excited! I really love this story and I'm so happy you all love it too ð¥°