(Just in case anyone needs reassurance and/or didn't see my response to the few others who were wondering the same thing: no, Y/n is not pregnant. I don't write stuff like that unless it's a random oneshot or something, but even then still hardly ever. She only felt suddenly sick because Barrow was there. Good? Good.
And just a reminder: any clothes I describe, if you don't like it or it's not your style, just imagine something else.)
...
"So when did you get there?" Rafael asks while perched on the edge of Noah's desk in the darkened Sheriff's station. Y/n, Stiles, Scott, Kira, and Lydia sit in front of him.
"At the same time." Stiles answers.
"At the same time as who?"
"At the same time as me." Scott said.
"By coincidence?"
"What do you mean coincidence?" Y/n asked.
"That's what I'm asking you. The three of you arrived at the same time. Was that coincidence?"
"Are you asking me?" Scott wondered.
"I think he's asking me." Stiles said.
"No, he might be asking me." Y/n mused.
"I think he's asking all three of you." Lydia added.
"Okay, let me answer the questions." Rafael interjected and then realized his slip. "Let me ask the questions." Stiles pointed and winked at the man like 'there you go'. He grabbed his little notebook to go over the information. "Just so I have this absolutely clear. Barrow was hiding in the Chemistry closet at the school. Someone left him a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira. Then Barrow took Kira to a power substation and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her, which blacked out the entire town."
"Sounds about right." Stiles agreed.
"How'd you know he'd take her to a power station?"
"Well, 'cause he was an electrical engineer. So where else would he take her?"
"That's one hell of a deduction there, Stiles."
"Yeah, what can I say? I take after my pops. He's in law enforcement." He winks at Noah who sits in his chair behind Rafael. Noah snorts at his son in amusement, but covers it with a cough when Rafael glances back at him.
"Stiles, just, uh... Just answer the man." Noah asked.
"We made a good guess."
"It's simple logic really." Y/n pointed out. "Killers tend to go where they're comfortable, and with a fragile psyche such as Barrow had, he'd definitely go somewhere where he felt comfortable and in control."
Stiles smiled proudly at his girlfriend and Rafael decided to move on with the questioning, his next one directed at Scott and Kira. "What were the two of you doing?"
Scott said 'eating pizza' at the same time Kira said 'eating sushi'. They glanced at each other and tried again, this time switching answers. With one last try they agreed on and enunciated, "Eating sushi and pizza."
Rafael looked back at Noah. "You believe this?"
Noah sighs. "To be honest, I haven't believed a word Stiles has said since he learned how to speak." Stiles lightly nodded at this frankly fair assessment. "But I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time and that girl sitting there is very lucky for it."
"Kira, is that how you remember it?"
Kira looked at Scott, and then noticed the other three leaning forward a bit to see her better, before she looked at the agent again. "Yes. Could I get my phone back now?"
He shook his head bit. "Sorry, but no." He led them out of the room and gave the evidence bag holding her phone to a deputy. "Kira, a deputy is going to take you home. But we'll need to fill out some paperwork first." Kira watched the deputy lock up her phone before walking away.
...
Coach walks down the hall with a bullhorn and speaks into it. "Class starts in five minutes. Just because there's no power don't expect there to be no school."
Stiles looked at him from his locker as he passed. "That was a triple negative. Very impressive, Coach."
"Copy that."
Stiles moved a book in his locker and dropped his keys. "Oops!" He bent down and picked them up, hesitating a bit when he saw something peculiar. He picked out a single key and looked at it. "Hello. Where did you come from?" He suddenly let out a small 'oof' when someone jumped on his back. He glanced over his shoulder to see his smiling witch.
"There's my lover boy."
"And there's my witchy girl." He smiled at her as she let go of him only to latch on again when she stood in front of him and pressed a kiss to his lips. They broke apart when the school doors opened and they looked to see Scott making his way to them. They noticed his attention was drawn down the hall and they saw Kira turn and busy herself with her locker. Scott went to go to her when Stiles stopped him. "No. No. Stop. Stop."
"What? I need to talk to her."
"No, you don't. You need to remember that someone left a coded message telling Barrow to kill her."
"Which is why I need to talk to her."
"Scott, no way. Until we figure out if she's just another psychotic monster that's gonna start murdering everybody, I vote against any and all interaction."
Scott watched Kira walk away from her locker. "What if she's like me?"
"That girl walked through 1.21 jigawatts of electricity. She's not like you."
"Okay, Doc Brown. I personally don't think she's dangerous. To us at least." Y/n said. "She's not a werewolf like Scott, but she's definitely something." Y/n knew what Kira was, but she had a feeling that Kira didn't even know what she was. Y/n wasn't sure if she should tell or not, so she kept it to herself for now. Scott walked away without another word and the couple watched him go. Y/n frowned a bit while Stiles became distracted with the stranger key on his ring. He's pulled away from it again as Y/n called him. "Come on, we've got class."
...
Scott managed to get Kira to talk to him and she showed him something she hadn't ever showed anyone. She instructed him to take a picture of her with the flash and he could see in the photo her fox spirit. Not knowing what it is freaks her out. Scott agrees with her that they've got to get her phone and so he gets Stiles' help. Scott and Kira park out behind the Sheriff's station where Stiles and Y/n wait in his Jeep.
Stiles holds a few cards in his hands as the pair come up to his window. "Okay, this one will get you into all the perimiter doors, this one into the evidence room, and this one's for my father's office." He handed them to Scott as he named them.
"You didn't steal these, did you?" Scott asked.
"No. I cloned them using the RFID emulator."
"Is that worse than stealing?"
Y/n nodded while Stiles answered. "It's smarter."
"Scott, can I ask you something?" Kira directed him out of human ear shot, but Y/n listened in because she was a bit curious as to what the girl was wanting to say.
Stiles huffed a bit. "Okay, I'll just..."
"You didn't tell them anything, did you? About the pictures?" Kira asked Scott.
"Oh, uh, no, I just said that you have some pictures of you on your phone that you didn't want anyone to see."
"What kind of pictures?"
"... Naked pictures."
"Oh. Good idea."
"Okay. Cool."
Y/n snickered to herself as they walked back to the Jeep. Stiles glanced at her but faced the two outside. "Okay. So, now almost everybody's dealing with the blackout. But there's always somebody at the front desk. There's Dispatch, usually a night shift or two. You guys are gonna use the service door entrance by the dumpster. All right? Nobody uses it. Now, I'll text you if anyone comes out. But, Scott, if you get caught, I can't help you. My dad's under investigation for an impeachment because of your dad, so, if anything happens I will take my girlfriend, run and leave you both for dead."
Scott nodded. "Got it. Thanks. Seriously, dude."
"I'd ask my dad, but you know..."
"No. I know. I get it."
"All right, just, uh, hurry up."
"Scott, are you sure you don't need my help?" Y/n asked, leaning over Stiles a bit to look at her friend better.
"I'm sure. Less people, the better." She gave a small nod and the two walked away.
They sat in silnce for a while, just waiting and watching. Stiles took to swinging his keys on his finger for a while to pass the time until he stopped and looked at the foriegn key again. Y/n noticed his pause and looked at him. "Hey." She lightly called. He dropped the key and looked at her. "What's on your mind?"
He furrowed his brows a bit. "Uh... I'm just trying to figure out where this key came from." He held it up again and Y/n tilted her head in thought. "I don't remember putting it on here and I have no idea what it goes to."
"Maybe your dad put it there?"
His eyes became locked on the object again. "I already asked him. He had no idea."
"Stiles." She brought her hand up and put her finger under his chin, gently turning his head to make him look at her. "It's probably nothing, and if it is something we'll deal with it when it comes, okay? Togther." She gave him an assuring smile and he couldn't help but mirror it. Even with just a few words, she always had a way of making him feel like things would be okay and that nothing was as bad as it seemed. He lent forward to kiss her when she suddenly frowned, staring intently in his eyes, making him pause.
"What?" He wondered.
"What's wrong with your eyes?" She muttered, really only speaking to herself, but in the close quarters of the Jeep he was able to hear her clearly.
"What do you mean?"
"There's something... Different about them. They're... Darker." The usual warm chocolate color of his eyes seemed almost tainted in a way, not as bright as they once were. Like a shadow was lurking in the depths.
He opened his mouth to say something, he honestly didn't know what, when lights shined on them, the headlights from an approaching car. They looked over to see the big black SUV driven by none other than Agent McCall there. "Ah, hell." As Rafael got out of the car and made his way to the building Stiles got his phone out and tried to warn the two teens inside. "Come on, Scott." Scott wasn't answering and the adult has now gone in. "Okay, I'm so gonna regret this."
"Stiles, what are you-"
"Stay here." He cut her off as he hopped out, hesitating and doubling back. "Please." Before continuing on to stall the man.
"Wait-" She huffed in annoyance. She was a witch for Pete's sake, she would be very helpful in this situation, but she stayed as asked albeit unwillingly. After a few minutes Stiles came out and leaned against the Jeep. She climbed out and made her way to him, snaking her arms around his waist as his went around her. "Hey, everything good?"
He sighed but nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I think so." Not even a minute later did Scott and Kira run out of the building towards them with excited grins. Y/n moved to Stiles' side, letting her arms fall while he kept one over her shoulders.
"We did it. All the pics deleted." Scott proudly stated.
"That was awesome!" Kira exclaimed. Stiles gave her a surprised but amused look. "I mean, terrifying. Completely terrifying... But kind of awesome." She beamed and the other three couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. "I've never done anything like that before. Have you?" She asked them. Scott pursed his lips as they glanced at each other.
"Yeah, once or twice." Stiles answered for them.
Kira nodded and Scott looked at her. "So, I guess I should take you home." Kira seemed a bit disappointed but hid it with a nod as they headed to his bike.
"Hey, you wanna go to that party Danny was having?" Y/n asked Stiles as they got into the Jeep. She didn't like parties, but even Danny's party idea was enough to draw the witch in.
"Um, hell yes." She chuckled at him.
Scott, hearing this, got an idea. "Hey, you don't want to go to a party, would you?" He asked and Kira answered him with a happy smile.
The four made their way to Derek's loft. Y/n could hear the music even from the street and she huffed a laugh. "Derek is going to be so pissed if he finds out about this." She took Stiles' hand and the four teens made their way up the stairs and into the supposed-to-be-empty loft that was filled with other teens decked out in clothes, accecories, and paint making them glow under the blacklights.
Y/n looked down at her shirt, a black cropped cami with skeleton hands on the chest under a long sleeve super crop top. She smiled at the way the skeleton hands and the crop top glowed. She slipped away from Stiles with a, 'be right back', weaving through the dancing bodies and out of his sight. Stiles had decided to share his concern of the key with Scott and started to tell him about it while she was away, having to yell over the pounding music. "It showed up there on my key ring this morning. I asked my dad if he put it there but he said he didn't know anything about it."
"It's just a key, right?" Scott asked.
"Yeah, but it's not mine. And I don't know how it got there or what it's for."
"You want to leave so we can figure it out?
"Uh..." Y/n came back then, now sporting glowing lips as she kissed his cheek.
"You wanna paint me?" She asked with a half smile.
"It can wait." Stiles directed at Scott. "It can wait." He repeated as he happily followed his girlfriend further into the party and towards the paint table. Once there she took the long sleeved top off, tying it around her waist, leaving plenty of skin bare for him to paint.
He happily picked up a brush and started to leave glowing marks along her collarbones. He drewva heart with some stripes and swirls over her chest before moving to her face. Taking up more colors he painted a crescent moon on her forehead with some dots and lines above her brows. Her eyes never left his as he focused on his task, and he could feel it with a burning intensity. It was her turn next. She had something simple in mind, not wanting to crowd up too much of his beautiful face she painted dots and lines around the right side of his face. His eyes didn't leave her much like she had done, and his gaze left a warmth on her skin as if he was physically touching her.
When she was done she leaned in and brought her lips close to his ear, ghosting over the skin as she spoke. "Dance with me." Even though she whispered he could hear her clearly as if they were in a quiet room. She took his hand and led him to the throng of other people already dancing. Her arms went over his shoulders, fingers threading through the hair on the nape of his neck, while his went around her waist, hands finding purchase on her hips as they swayed together. He stared into her e/c eyes, the ones shining with her adoration for him, and noticed something. His brows drew together slightly as he looked at her eyes in wonder. Noticing this she mimicked his action. "What?"
"Your eyes."
"What about them?"
"They're... Glowing. I mean, not like usual, not like when you use your magic. But there's small flecks of purple in your irises that are glowing." It was captivating to say the least.
"Really? Maybe it's the UV light. I'm not around them enough to ever notice."
"Whatever it is, it's... Beautiful. You're beautiful." His tone was soft as he marveled at the sight of her.
He thought he couldn't fall for her any more than he already had, but with everything she does and is, even with this simple thing, he finds himself falling exponentially. He let his hand run up her side and settle on her cheek, his thumb gently tracing the edge of her colored lips. Slowly, almost painfully, he brought their faces closer to capture her lips with his. The music faded into background noise as they became absorbed in each other. He's not sure what he did to deserve her, what great act he did in this or his previous lives that granted him the privilege of calling her his, but he was incredibly thankful.
After a while of dancing they set themselves on the spiral staircase, Y/n having grabbed a couple bottles for them to drink. "Where's your bottle opener?" She asked about the one on his keys.
"Uh... Here." He fished them out and handed them to her, but she saw something shine and examined them closer.
"Your key has phosphors on it." There was a green fingerprint on the wide part of the key.
"What are phosphors?"
"They're any substance that luminesces. It's in your teeth, fingernails, laundry detergent. Apparently also in my eyes. It's also in this." She took a quick moment to kiss him again, getting more of the glow from her lips onto his than there already was. He licked his lips when she pulled away, his eyes glued to hers. "It reacts to the UV light which is why it glows." He only half listened as he dove in to kiss her again.
But his brain would only let him be distracted for so long as he pulled away again to frown at the key. "How would I get phosphors on my key?"
"Have you been handling chemicals?"
"No, I don't think I..." His mind clicked. The Chemistry closet full of chemicals. "I'm sorry. I'm really totally sorry." He got up from the stairs to stand in front of his now confused girlfriend. "I just thought of something and I- I have to go. Really, I don't want to. I want to stay. I would just love to stay all night-" He gave her another lingering kiss. "I swear. But I really have to go, I'm sorry."
"Wait, Stiles-" She got up as he started to back away.
"I love you. I gotta go." And then he was off through the crowd.
"Stiles! Where are you going?" She called as she tried to follow him but it was hard to keep up through everybody. By the time she got in an area where she was alone she was in the hall outside of the loft and Stiles was nowhere to be seen. She sighed in frustration. She loved his overactive mind, but sometimes it was impossible to keep up with. She turned to go back into the party to let Scott know Stiles left and that she was going too, but she stopped when she felt a shift in the air. She looked around, not seeing anyone around, until there was movement in the shadows. Five figures dressed in black and wearing masks coalesced from the darkness.
She had a vague knowledge of these creatures, only having a few paragraphs about them in her grimoire. She watched them warily as they moved closer to her. She knew their name, the oni, and knew that, depending on who summoned them and what their purpose was, they were pretty much harmless unless you get in their way. Problem was she didn't know who summoned them or why they were here, all she knew was that she was cornered.
Before she can even think to defend herself two of them quickly grab hold of her arms and another came up in front of her and put a hand on the left side of her head behind her ear. It tilted it's head to the side while it's eyes glowed with a firefly light and she was frozen in place. She felt her soul being searched all the way to the very depths of her being, frigid fingers looking through her essence leaving icy trails behind in it's wake. She could hear a voice, distant and muffled like she was underwater.
Searching.
Void.
Self.
Once the oni found what it was looking for, or rather the lack thereof, it moved it's hand from her head, it's finger leaving a mark behind her ear similar to a backwards 5, the Kanji for self, and the oni vanished back into the shadows. Y/n crumpled to the ground, her back hitting the wall, shivering and staring blankly ahead of herself. She's not sure how long she sat there, unaware if it was minutes or even days, when someone finally found her.
"Y/n?" Derek crouched in front of her, holding her face between his hands to try and get her to focus on him. "Y/n? Can you hear me?" Her skin was ice cold and her gaze was vacant.
"They came from the shadows." Her voice was faint, like she wasn't aware that she was speaking out loud.
"Come on. Let's get you inside." He picked her up from the ground, supporting her shivering frame with his arms, and went to the door. He paused when he saw all of the people there, but pushed past everyone and sat her on the stairs, taking her top from her waist and slipping it over her head so she at least had a little more warmth than in just the cami. Then he made his way over to the DJ, but was stopped by one of the bouncers with a hand to his chest.
"Bro, sorry, The Bloody Beetroot doesn't take requests." Derek gave a small nod and continued forward only to be stopped again. "Bro, seriously. I said the Dj doesn't take-" Derek cuts him off by grabbing the guy by the neck.
"He'll take mine." He tossed the man aside and approached the DJ table, giving a smile to the masked musician before flipping the table, effectively cutting the music off. Everyone stopped dancing to look at the scene. "GET OUT!" His voice thundered through the loft, reaching the ears of all of his uninvited guests. They were frozen for just a moment before they all clammored over themselves to do as ordered.
Aiden, supporting Lydia who had also been visited by the oni, told Danny to take her out of there and he did as told. Soon after Allison and Isaac who support Ethan, and Scott and Kira all came into the loft, seeing the five dark figures standing against the rushing crowd. They all turned and faced Aiden. "Guys, they're all looking at me." The oni take a step forward. "Why are they all looking at me?" Another step. And a third. "Guys?"
Scott and Derek both lunged and swiped at an oni only for it to be dodged. Derek was kicked in the back and Scott dove out of the way of two more kicks. Derek growled, baring his fangs, and jumped forward, breaking an oni's neck. Assuming it was dead he looked away, only to look back when the shadows swirled around it's neck, putting it's head back in place. He looked at it shocked before he was thrown into a pillar.
Y/n had managed to recover enough to know what's going on around her, but she was still too weak to move. "No. Don't fight." She tried to yell but it came out as a mutter. They'd only get more hurt if they fight.
Scott ducked under another kick, having his own swipes dodged and his arm caught by an oni. Another came forward and thrust it's hand against his chest and sent him flying across the room. They faced Aiden again when Isaac decided to try and help, bringing out his claws and growling out a warning. An oni turned and faced him, pulling a ninjato made of shadow from it's chest. It swings the sword in a show that it knows what it's doing and is not afraid to use it. Isaac wisely steps back and the oni faces Aiden again.
"Somebody do something!" Allison urges, but no one is able to. Two oni grab Aiden by his arms while a third stands in front of him. It puts it's hand on his head like it did Y/n and it's eyes glowed. When it didn't find what it was looking for the oni marked him and they let him fall to the ground. They turned again and this time looked towards Scott and Kira. Scott jumped from his spot on the ground to defend her while half shifted. He glanced back at her and she could see his red eyes and fangs. Scott turned back to the oni and growled. The oni took a step forward, but there wasn't any more they could do as dawn has approached and sunlight poured into the loft. The oni dissolved into shadow once again.
Once the coast was clear Ethan went to his brother's aid. Derek picked himself up and went to Y/n who had made herself stand up on her own, leaning heavily on the railing. "What the hell were those things?" Scott asked.
"Shadow spirits." Y/n managed to speak loud enough for them to hear as Derek helped her stand. "Demon warriors."
Isaac looked at Allison. "Your dad's 24 hours are up."
~~~
Published: 7/14/21
Edited: 4/12/22