Chapter Text
Chapter One
Scott
“…fm’latgh ebumna vulgtlagln… nyth culn shugg cstell’bsna kadishtu… phlegeth cgotha ee kadishtu kn’aa,” whispered a cacophony of voices, dissimilar from one another yet distinct in sharing a guttural tone utterly unfamiliar to Scott. The same fragments of speech repeated over and over again in his mind, causing him to toss and turn in his bed, slipping in and out of consciousness.
Despite his want and will to sleep soundly that night, the voices, or rather the effect of them, rose in intensity over time, becoming harder and harder to ignore. Eventually, the haunting chorus peaked at an almost deafening intensity, causing Scott to bolt upright in his bed, waking from a nightmare he surely wouldn’t forget.
“Ugh, great,” Scott muttered, as he laid his head back down onto his pillow rather forcefully. He attempted to drift back into slumber for several minutes, but it was to no avail. Briefly glancing at his phone, he saw that it was already about five o’clock.
Might as well get up then, he thought, as he decided to get out of bed and start the day. Drowsily walking towards the bathroom, he was thankful that he shared the bathroom with only three other students this year, so it was unlikely that any of them would be using it at this hour. He entered the bathroom, quickly brushed his teeth, and got in the shower, making sure that the water wasn’t too warm, because as much as he enjoyed the soothing relaxation of a hot shower, he still wasn’t fully awake yet, and passing out in the shower was definitely not part of his game plan for the day.
After Scott finished his shower, which made him feel much livelier than before, he stood in front of the mirror for a few minutes, making sure his hair was at least somewhat presentable. Lately, his preferred hairstyle was just to let his hair fall down naturally on his forehead without the use of any products, though he kept it noticeably shorter than he had in his early teens. At first, he had been resistant to this change, but two of his current group of friends, Rosa Herrera and Qiana Williams, had assured him that it was the right decision.
Unfortunately for them, Stiles was as stubborn with his styling choices as he was with many things, so he still rocked his gelled tips with pride. Scott didn’t push him on it though, he enjoyed his boyfriend’s full head of hair, both in appearance and in feel, and wouldn’t want him to go back to the buzz cut he had had until their junior year of high school. Stiles was, after all, prone to making such all-or-nothing decisions.
Once he finished brushing and combing his hair, Scott exited the bathroom and put on a blue, long-sleeved shirt and light brown pants. It still felt strange to him to wear anything but t-shirts and shorts at this time of year, a daily reminder that he wasn’t in California anymore. Not that he disliked the colder, more varying weather of Arkham, Massachusetts overmuch; he just missed the sunshine and warmth of fall in Beacon Hills. But, Miskatonic University had offered him and Stiles great scholarships and was a prestigious school in its own right, so he really couldn’t have refused.
Man, it’s not even six yet, Scott thought, disappointed that he had only managed to kill about forty minutes. However, seeing as his shift at the library didn’t start until eight when it opened, he decided that now would be a good time to get ahead on some homework for his classes. Settling down in the lounge chair in the corner opposite the windows of his dorm room, Scott cracked open his textbooks and got to work, all the while trying to put that awfully strange nightmare out of his mind.
###
Stiles
“Stiles get up!” Shin said, as he gave Stiles a nudge on his shoulder.
“I’m awake, I’m awake, what happened?” Stiles asked his roommate, Shin Hayashi, as he practically jolted out bed, immediately remembering the programming project the two of them had been working feverishly on the previous night.
“Nothing, except for the giant pool of drool on my shoulder,” Shin responded after a quick laugh at Stiles flailing.
He had to admit he was just a bit embarrassed by the situation at hand, but thankfully, Shin wasn’t one of those straight guys that perceives everything as an advance and was completely comfortable with his bisexuality. That and a bunch of other traits, including some positive physical ones, such as his lean physique and striking dark brown eyes, made him quite the catch in Stiles’ opinion.
“Dude, did we finish the project, I can’t remember,” Stiles said, lazily wiping the sleep from his eyes and dried saliva from his chin with the bottom of his shirt.
“Of course we did bro!” Shin said enthusiastically raising his hand for a high-five. Stiles reciprocated the gesture, which was only slightly delayed due to his drowsiness.
“But I wouldn’t celebrate just yet,” Shin said “’Cause we didn’t compile it before we passed out, so I don’t really know if it works or not.”
“So were there any errors?” Stiles asked as he exchanged the sweatpants and t-shirt he fell asleep in with another pair of sweatpants and a long sleeved shirt.
“Oh, I didn’t compile it yet, that’s why I woke you up. Since its due today and class starts in only a couple of hours, I figured it would be easier and faster if we both worked on it together,” Shin said.
“Good point, let’s get started,” Stiles said, not at all looking forward to the tedious and often infuriating process of debugging hundreds of lines of code. Stiles started Shin’s laptop and opened up the various files associated with their project.
After compiling the code, which on its own took a few minutes, the compiler returned only a few syntax errors that they must have been missed when they were finishing up the project in the early hours of the morning. He and Shin were able to correct the errors in only about a half hour, as most were easily fixable.
Upon compiling the program again after the corrections had been applied, both of them were ecstatic when no errors were detected and it ran successfully.
“Yes!” Shin said doing a celebratory fist pump in the air.
“Thank fuck. Dude that project took forever,” Stiles groaned as he leaned his head against the back of the chair he was sitting in.
“Tell me about it, but hey at least we’re done. Now, you should take a shower,” Shin said, backing away slowly from Stiles in jest.
Stiles only responded with his best offended look.
Shin laughed. “What, I’m just saying; your BO is pretty palpable in here.”
“Palpable. Nice vocab word,” Stiles said, stripping down to his boxers before going into the bathroom.
“I try,” Shin said, still containing his laughter at the whole situation “Be quick about it though, class is in an hour”
“Yes dad,” Stiles said, now giggling a bit to himself.
He sure was lucky to have a roommate with a sense of humor, especially one similar to his, he thought as he entered the shower, he couldn’t imagine how he miserable he would be if he got stuck with someone annoying or ignorant, like Scott’s roommate Andrew.
Stiles finished his shower in only about fifteen minutes and got dressed again. He proceeded to transfer the project from Shin’s laptop to his, which took quite a while as his laptop was old and notoriously slow.
After the transfer completed, he left his dorm room with Shin to get to class early, so they could test the program on the school computers just to make sure it worked; he was not about to be the subject of another failed presentation, once was more than enough.
###
Ugh, could this class be any duller, Stiles thought, slumped over in his seat in Lecture hall AH107 during his American history class. Normally he would be more attentive, but after staying up late to finish that project, he just had no time for Professor Jameson’s bullshit today. But, at least he and Shin had aced their project and the associated presentation, so there was that.
Fortunately for him though, with a class of over a hundred students, it was easy for him to doze off in the back occasionally, confident that his friends, Rosa and Qiana, would wake him if Jameson noticed him.
At least that would be the case if these three dudes in the front would just be quiet.
I thought I was talkative; these guys take the word to a whole new level, he thought, I mean at least I try to make it interesting, these guys are just blathering on about nothing.
Although, from the disinterested and annoyed looks that Rosa and Qiana were directing towards them, he could tell he was not alone in his annoyance with these clowns.
“Well that’s it for today’s lecture, I’ll see you all next class,” Professor Jameson said, seeming practically enthralled by how excited the class was about the day’s lecture. This was, of course, clearly visible on the glazed over faces of the student masses, always eager to absorb his words.
Getting up from his cushioned seat, which due his slouching, had developed a curvature around his ass, Stiles pulled up his slightly sagging sweatpants and exited the hall with Qiana and Rosa. Even though they were all dressed pretty casually for class, he was undoubted the most of casually dressed of the three of them. Rosa was wearing a somewhat loose-fitting, purple long-sleeved shirt with a light, black sweater on top of it and a long maroon skirt. She had her long hair in a bun that day, as she had told him on the way to class that she hadn’t really felt like styling it in any particular fashion that morning.
Qiana, on the other hand, had her hair up in a medium sized afro and was wearing a heavier, blue, turtleneck sweater and tight-fitting black jeans. Come to think of it, he really looked quite raggedy in comparison, but then again he was never one to care much about his appearance.
“I can’t stand that class, especially those three muthafuckas in the front, always makin' ignant ass comments,” Qiana complained.
“I know right, as if Jameson’s monotone ass voice wasn’t annoying enough, we got listen to them argue about whatever amongst themselves,” Rosa said, looking visibly tired of the whole situation.
“Seriously, I just want be like, newsflash, nobody cares about your personal debates, we just want to know material that’s gonna be on the test,” Stiles said.
After a brief pause in their ranting, Rosa, with a distinctive change in tone, said “To be real though, I’d still do the one who sits on the far left. He has quite the physique.”
“You can’t be serious!” Stiles said.
“Stiles, don’t give me that judgment. Not all of us can date Mr. Perfect and get it on the regular. I gotta keep my options open,” Rosa said jokingly.
“But really girl, love yourself,” Qiana said.
Rosa laughed. “Girl, I do, I just need to get that D once in a while.”
“Stiles, don’t lie, you think he’s good looking too,” Rosa said.
“Well, of course, I do, but I’m already spoken for, so it would be inappropriate for a young maid such as myself to comment further on his appearance,” Stiles said. Rosa and Qiana both laughed heartily, the intended effect.
“Says the dude who legit gave us a spreadsheet of all the best looking dudes in his hometown for reference for when we visited during summer break, with rated categories and everything,” Qiana said, just barely managing to contain her laughter.
“Girl, like you didn’t request it,” Rosa said.
“True, but I wasn’t expecting such a thorough evaluation,” Qiana said.
Stiles smiled. “I aim to please.”
By this point in their conversation, the three of them had walked out of Anderson Hall and had almost reached the entrance of the campus cafeteria. Entering the main lunch room, Stiles led the way to a circular table on the right side of the room where Scott, Shin, and Scott’s roommate and fellow lacrosse team member, Andrew, were seated. He was pretty eager to put his stuff down and go get some grub.
“Wus’ up, Scotty,” Stiles said as Scott stood up to greet him with a kiss. Stiles happily returned his boyfriend’s affections, making sure to linger just long enough to cop a feel on that wonderful ass of his.
“Stiles, contain yourself,” Scott whispered.
“What, you have a great ass,” Stiles responded as he took off his backpack and placed it in underneath the seat next to Scott’s before heading out to the buffet table.
As he walked towards the central buffet table set up in the middle of the cafeteria, he noticed that Andrew looked a bit uncomfortable with their openness of affection. Well, tough shit for you, it took me years to work up the courage to admit my feelings for Scott, I’ll be as open as I want, he thought, at least Liam got better over time, this guy was almost as bothersome as Jackson.
Stiles continued to ponder on it as he picked up a burger, fries and a soda. It was, however, just like Scott to offer his friendship to an incoming freshman who apparently didn’t have any friends of his own. One of his many admirable qualities; he just wished he had picked someone a bit more tolerable.
Stiles returned to the table with his lunch just as Rosa was right in the middle of an argument with Andrew, which brought a satisfied smirk to his face.
“I didn’t mean it like that! I was just saying that maybe you shouldn’t talk about your sexual exploits in such detail, people already say things about you,” Andrew said timidly.
“So, I don’t care. Show of hands, does this look like the face of someone who cares about people talking smack about her?” Rosa asked as she pointed towards her face.
“Nope,” everyone at the table except Andrew said.
“See that’s the key, Andrew. I know that you’re a freshman, so no one probably told you yet, but in college, nobody really gives a fuck. Sure they chatter, spread rumors, call me a puta, but its whatever, ain’t nothing gonna come of it,” Rosa said before taking another sip of her iced tea.
“Anyway, Scott, I’m sensing you’re a bit unwell,” Qiana said, clearly feeling some werewolf related vibe that Stiles couldn’t perceive, because he seemed fine to him. But, then again, he always had been one to hide his own pain for the benefit of others.
“I didn’t sleep too well last night and I had this really weird dream, a nightmare really,” Scott said “There were these strange voices, all whispering these same phrases in some language I couldn’t begin to decipher.”
“Sounds pretty trippy,” Shin said in between bites of his turkey and beef sandwich.
“It was,” Scott said, clearly unsettled by the event.
“Hold up. In your dream, were the voices repeating the same phrases over and over, getting louder over time,” Qiana said with an intense look on her face.
“Yeah, actually they did. How did you know that?” Scott said. As if on instinct, Stiles briefly held Scott’s hand under the table, trying to relieve whatever anxiety he was feeling at the moment. The gesture seemed to help, as Scott gave him the subtlest of smiles before responding to Qiana.
“I had a similar dream, but in mine there was only one voice, but it was like really distorted so like, I could hear someone talking, but I couldn’t make out any of the words,” Qiana said, seeming almost doubtful of her own memory.
“Strange. Could just be a coincidence due to stress because I know that you two get really stressed in a similar way about tests and stuff, but I wouldn’t worry about it,” Rosa said, using one of their decided upon code-words to talk about werewolf stuff. Since her mom was the emissary to Qiana’s mom’s pack back in their hometown, she knew quite a bit about werewolves and their connection to one another.
Plus, she was way more straight-forward about it than Deaton ever was, he thought, recalling Deaton’s ever so cryptic non-answers.
“I’ll see you at Lacrosse practice Scott,” Andrew said as he put on his backpack and windbreaker.
“Wait, where are you going? You just got here ten minutes ago,” Shin said.
“Oh, I have to go over to the frat house. We’re having an event today with the sisters from the Epsilon Iota Sigma sorority, and being a legacy and newly accepted member and all, I have to attend,” Andrew said with his usual air of pomposity.
“Oh okay,” Scott said “See you at practice then.”
Once Andrew had exited the cafeteria to go to his frat event, which would surely be intensely riveting, Stiles wasted no time in inquiring further about the strange dreams.
“Really though, Rosa, should we be concerned about this?” Stiles asked.
“I don’t think so, at least not yet anyway. For now, it just seems like you guys just had a similar experience due to your pack link. ‘Cause even though Scott’s not your alpha, Qiana, you are in his pack and he is the nearest alpha around, so you’re probably just in tune with what he’s sensing,” Rosa replied in a hushed tone.
“That certainly makes sense, and it would explain why their dreams weren’t exactly the same, only similar in theme,” Shin said.
“I mean, y’all are making sense and everything but what I felt was just so strong; I can’t believe it didn’t mean anything at all,” Qiana said.
“Yeah I have to agree with her, Scott. Considering all the things that have happened to us over the years that at first seemed like nothing but became very real and dangerous somethings, I think it would be smart for us to not dismiss it right away,” Stiles said.
“Well, seeing as nothing has actually happened yet as the result of these dreams, at least not that I know of, I think that it’s too early to assume that they are related to the supernatural. But as always, it would be good for us to stay alert for the next few days, just in case,” Scott advised them.
Stiles would be lying if he said he didn’t get aroused every time Scott went into alpha mode. If only he would do his alpha roar while he fucked me, I’d probably come harder than I’d ever come before, he thought as the group went back to eating their lunch. Sadly, it wouldn’t ever happen unless we did it deep in the woods, considering it was loud enough to alert everyone in the tri-state area.
The rest of the group’s lunch together was fairly uneventful, ending with Rosa and Scott going to the library to start their shifts for the day, Qiana going back to her dorm to study for her chemistry test, and himself and Shin going to the computer center in Haldermann Hall to begin their shifts, which were thankfully shorter on Wednesday than they were during the rest of the week.