Chapter Text
Things with Theo have been…amazing. He’s been so sweet with her even more than before. That first kiss has led to many successful dates and even more successful make out sessions in Stiles’ room. Theo has met Stiles’ mom a few times and Claudia likes Theo but has warned Stiles about falling too deep. Stiles, knowing that her mom just wants to protect her heart, listens and does keep a safe distance with Theo. She never lets the make outs go too far and always makes sure to put a stop to them when she feels themselves getting out of control. Theo has been a real good sport about it and told Stiles that their relationship is at Stiles’ comfort. Relationship. God, Stiles isn’t sure she’s actually ever had a relationship. If you count the one-sided love she has for Derek then okay this is the second one.
Speaking of Derek, Stiles notices his eyes often following her around as she. It’s hard to ignore him when she’s always noticed him before. Today before second period she passed by his locker and saw him chatting up some girl from Stiles’ homeroom. He’d moved in a little closer and when he looked over their shoulder his eyes connected with Stiles’ own eyes. She quickly averted her gaze like she wasn’t just caught, missing the way Derek didn’t actually take his eyes off of her until she’d disappeared around the corner.
It’s almost summer and that means that Stiles and Theo will be looking forward to Senior activities and their final year of high school together. She’s hoping that they’ll last past summer, but doesn’t want to get ahead of herself. They’re already planning everything they’re gonna do this summer. Theo’s brother-in-law owns a beach house and has allowed them a week there with any friends they’d like to bring, so long as they clean up any messes they make.
She’d just gotten into her jeep at the end of the school day and nearly jumped out of her seat at the knock on her window. Theo is on the other side laughing while Stiles just scowls at him.
“Very funny you jerk.” she mutters, rolling down her window.
Theo reaches over the open window to kiss her and just smiles at her.
“I’m sorry baby. I couldn’t help myself. You headed home?”
“I mean. Most people do go home after a long day of school.”
“Okay sheeesh. Touchy. Touchy.” Theo says with his arms raised, bent at the elbows in a ninety degree angle.
“I’m sorry Theo. I’m just tired. I had a test in AP U.S. History and I feel like my brain died on me. I had to write an essay on World War II and if today calls for a third world war. Now I have to go home and finish my AP Bio homework on the theory of evolution.”
“Mmmmm I love when you talk nerd to me.” Theo’s eyes are lidded as he murmurs this to Stiles. Leaning both hands on Stiles’ car and closing the space between them. “Say evolution again.”
Stiles just laughs and looks into Theo’s eyes. “Evolution.”
“No no no. Say it slower.”
As Stiles goes to make fun of Theo for his weird kinks she hears someone scoff from behind him. They both look to see Jackson passing by as he says to them, “Take that shit somewhere else Raeken. No one wants to know how big of a hard on you have for Stilinski.”
“Why don’t you go be a douche somewhere else jackass.” Stiles retorts.
Jackson stops and turns to look at Stiles with an ugly sneer on his face. Before he has the chance to even think of a comeback Theo is already in his face. Jackson jumps a little at Raeken’s speed and loses his train of thought. Theo grabs Jackson by his shirt and pulls him up a little bit to where Jackson is on the balls of his feet.
“You gonna say something to my girl Whittemore? Huh?” Theo snarls in his face. Stiles acts fast, getting out of her car and moving to Theo’s side trying to pull his hands off of Jackson. Her efforts are worthless next to Theo’s strength. Jackson moves to swing at Theo only to have Theo drop him and slap his hand out of the way. Theo is like lightning as he moves in to hit Jackson. Stiles watches with wide eyes as Jackson crumples to the ground. She turns to Theo.
“Are you crazy? Do you know how much trouble you’re about to get in?” She screams. Grabbing Theo and trying to push him in the direction of her car. She sees Lydia come out and make her way towards them.
“Look what you’ve done Stilinski! Jackson may have made fun of you but he never laid a hand on you!” She yells at Stiles.
Theo, not liking the redhead’s comment, moves towards her.
“You wanna end up like your boyfriend? Huh barbie?”
“THEO NO!” Stiles steps in front of him and pushes against his body. With her back turned towards the other couple she gasps as someone pulls her back by her hair. Her reflexes kick in and turns her whole body around swinging at whoever has grabbed her. It’s Allison, who had been behind her best friend. She blames Stiles for everything that’s happened lately. Scott has been pulling away from her and the other people at the table get tired of her rants about Stiles. Even Isaac has told her to shut up about it already. Now she has taken her chance to teach Stiles a lesson. Only for it to backfire on her.
Stiles is shocked to see that it wasn’t Lydia, but Allison who swung at her. When Allison gets back up Stiles ducks left and uses her body to tackle Allison down. Allison has the breath knocked out of her and just lies there in shock. Stiles, not the type to kick someone either further down, backs up and looks at Theo, who is grinning at her. Stiles stares past his shoulders at Scott who is looking at Stiles with the same shocked expression as everyone else. Behind Scott, Mr. Harris runs over, having seen the fight he looks at Stiles and Theo. He gives them the motion of going inside and the two move out of the big circle where two people lie, knocked out cold. On their way to the principal’s office Theo just grins like a cat who caught the mouse and looks at Stiles from the side.
“Nice swing there beautiful. You’ve never looked as hot as in that moment.”
Stiles just keeps looking forward with a smile also planted on her face.
“This is so worth getting in trouble.” She says to him as they move closer and closer to the principal’s door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Fighting Stiles? Really? What were you thinking?”
Stiles just sits and listens to her mom scold her.
“Mom you know Jackson has always been an ass. And Allison Argent started the fight! I have the right to kick her ass.”
“I know Stiles and I’m not going to punish for defending yourself. But you couldn’t have waited until AFTER school to whoop some ass? You’re suspended for a week and you’ll miss all the reviews for your finals. Which might I add are the week after your suspension is over?”
Stiles gets up to hug her mom.
“Mom don’t worry. I’ve got it under control!”
“Stiles I don’t know what to do with you. And what of Theo?”
“He’s suspended too.”
“Well then. It just pisses me off that those two snobby brats got off scotch free.”
“Remember mom Mr. Whittemore is a big time lawyer and Allison’s family has some kind of pull. When I figure it out I’ll let you know.”
“At least my little slugger got a couple hits in.”
“Mom. Please don’t call me that. Ever.”
“I think it’s cute! And it shows my daughter is not to be messed with. Hey what’s Theo doing?”
Stiles looks at her mom from the passenger seat, Claudia doesn’t look away from the road but she does have a shit eating grin on her face.
“He’s at home. Why?”
“I think you should give him a call and invite him out for pizza with us.”
“Pizza mom? Never knew we were so fancy.” Stiles says in a teasing voice. Her mom just throws her head back and laughs. Something Stiles has always loved about her mom. Stiles can be sarcastic as ever and her mom just takes it, even throwing in her own sarcastic comments at Stiles. There was no denying she was Claudia Dabrowski’s daughter.
“Just do it Stiles. Or I’ll tell Theo your real name.”
Stiles gasps at that and quickly pulls her phone out to text Theo.
“Nope, nope, nope. Can’t have that!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I just couldn’t take it anymore man. I really thought Allison was the one, ya know?”
“I get it.” Derek says in response to Scott. “You have no idea.” he mutters.
Scott is sitting across from Derek at the new coffeehouse venting about his relationship with Allison. He’d just endured an hour worth of Allison bitching about Stiles and how she is so below everyone on Earth that she should just kill herself and save everyone the trouble of having to see her. Hearing Allison say that Scott’s sister from another mister should off herself had been the final straw for Scott. He had told Allison that he didn’t appreciate her talking about Stiles like that. Instead of apologizing Allison kicked him out and told him to come back and apologize to her after he’s realized that she was right. And here he is now, talking to one Derek Hale because he thought Derek would be the only one to give him any worthy advice.
“Listen Scott. I don’t know what you want me to tell you. This isn’t my relationship. It’s yours, so do what you think is right.”
After Derek says his piece he gets up to pay for his coffee. He looks at Scott expectantly. Scott gets up and leaves with Derek.
“Yeah I get it. I don’t know. I gotta think it through man.”
“Alright well if that’s it I gotta go, man.”
“Hot date tonight?” Scott asks Derek jokingly.
Derek just shakes his head, “Nah. Not tonight. I’m just gonna head home.” He tells Scott as he walks with Scott towards their cars.
“What’s up with that?” Scott asks with a raised eyebrow. “I haven’t seen you go out with Jennifer or any other girl for the matter.”
“Just not feeling it.” Derek simply says. “See you at school Scott.”
“Yeah. See you.” Scott replies.
Scott turns towards his bike and rides home, consumed by thoughts of Allison and Stiles. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do. He’d wanted to date Allison so bad from the moment he saw her and thought that she was the love of his life. But is she really his love if she treats his sister like shit? He’d been thinking about breaking up with her for awhile and doesn’t know how he should go about doing that. When he got home he’d gotten ready for bed and is now lying down on his bed, still lost in thought.
Scott is torn out of his thoughts by the sound of his ringtone. He looks down to see it’s Derek.
Hey man. Listen I know it’s your relationship but I think you should also remember that Stilinski was there before Allison. -Derek
With that text Scott was able to come to a conclusion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The morning of Stiles’ first day back from suspension was weird, to say the least. She had gone back to people giving her newfound respect. A couple guys high-fived her at the entrance of the school first thing in the morning and she’d even see some girls give her smiles and approving nods. The weirdest would have to be Isaac Lahey coming up to her and apologizing. He had told her that he was sorry for being a shithead in the beginning and hoped that she would consider being friends with him. Stiles is many things now, a rebel, a fighter, but she could never say no to Isaac especially when he’d pulled out this remorseful look that Stiles knew to be sincere. Even Erica apologized for her rude comments. Stiles had told both parties that she had no problem forgiving them but the friend part would have to wait until Stiles could trust them. Her friendship didn’t come easy, partly why Scott had been her only friend since pre-k. The strangest part of her day would have to Derek Hale’s glances.
She’d noticed him looking at her before, but decided to just write it off as him looking at someone beside her or something. Now, seeing how his eyes would lock on hers, she’d realized that he really had been looking at one Stiles Stilinski. It made her heart stutter, she wasn’t gonna lie about that, but she still felt really strong about Theo. Theo had been there before Derek had given her any kind of attention.
Stiles turns as she hears someone call out for her. She’s surprised to see that it’s Scott running up to her. He has this small, unsure smile on his face as he gets closer.
“Stiles! I was wondering if you wanted to come over today and play games with me and Isaac.”
“Um. How about no. Sorry Scott. It’s just, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”
Stiles feels a twinge of guilt as she sees the sadness weigh heavily on Scott’s face.
“Yeah no I get it. You’re busy. What about this weekend?”
“Look Scott. I don’t know what’s going on but I don’t recall us being on good terms.”
Scott runs a hand through his hair and looks back at Stiles.
“You’re right. I’m sorry, I don’t know why I thought everything would just go back to normal. I just want you back Stiles. I miss you and I realize that I treated you like shit and I’m just so sorry. Please understand that I didn’t mean to.”
“You didn’t mean to Scott? Because it felt like you knew exactly what you were doing. You never once stood up for me. You left me to the wolves Scott! And then you called those people your friends!”
“And I’m sorry! I will repeat how sorry I am for the rest of my life Stiles. Please just give me another chance.”
“I can’t Scott. I’m sorry.” Stiles goes to walk away as Scott asks her, “Why Stiles? Why can’t you? Please just give me this one explanation.”
“Because as long as you’re dating Allison I don’t think I can be around you. There’s just too much bad blood.”
“I broke up with her.”
Scott’s words freeze Stiles where she stands. She turns back to him and sees his eyes shining with unshed tears as he looks at her.
“I realized no girl is worth losing my sister over. I may have realized that too late and I’m sorry Stiles. Just. Be happy.”
With those words Scott turns around and begins walking away. Stiles is stuck to where she is standing. The whole day is spent thinking about Scott.
After school Stiles heads to Theo’s. He’s still on suspension because he was the aggressor in the fight against Jackson. As they’re sitting on Theo’s couch Stiles waits to see what Theo has to say about all that has happened to Stiles at school.
“Honestly Theo. I want to give him a second chance because that’s my brother right there. If not by blood, then by bond.”
Theo smiles and nods.
“I think you should too Stiles. From what you’ve said it sounded like McCall meant it. I don’t think he was ever a bad dude. I just think he was easily influenced.”
“Yeah. Well I have to go now. Gotta make dinner before my mom comes back.”
“Alright beautiful.”
Theo gives her a kiss on the cheek and walks her to her car.
“Text me when you get back home.”
“I will!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day at school Stiles waits by Scott’s locker. He is talking to Isaac and when he sees Stiles he pauses then continues his way towards his locker.
“Isaac I’ll talk to you later, man.”
“Alright Scott.” Isaac says back. His eyes also on Stiles. On passing he gives her a small smile and Stiles smiles back in greeting.
“Hey Stiles. What’s up?”
“Well one. You suck at acting nonchalant. And two, I miss you too.”
Scott’s eyes widen at Stiles’ confession.
“I realize that it’s not fair to just cut you off like that, especially after all we’ve been through together. I miss my brother.”
Before she can get in another word the breath is knocked out of her when Scott tackles her and holds her tight to himself. She wraps her arms around him and closes her eyes. She rubs his back when she can feel her shirt getting damp.
“Scott come on bro. Don’t go soft on me right now.”
Scott lets go of her and begins wiping his eyes. Embarrassed that a few people in the halls might have seen him cry.
“I’m sorry. I just missed you Stiles. I would’ve understood if you never forgave me.”
“Yeah well it’s okay Scotty. You just lost yourself for a little while. I will always forgive you Scott. You were there for me through it all.”
“Yeah. I’m still sorry Stiles. And I will say it for the rest of my life.”
“It’s fine Scott.”
“It’s not. It’s really not.”
Scott’s eyes get watery again and before a tear can fall Stiles tells him that she has a surprise for him.
“Just meet me in the music room after school.”
Scott nods and promises to be there after practice. With that he walks away from Stiles. A bounce in his step.
At the end of the day Stiles is waiting on the piano bench for Scott. He comes in with his hair all wet and goes to sit by Stiles. He gives her a hug and when he pulls away he smiles brightly at her.
“Alright. You ready?”
“Oh yeah bro. Born ready.”
“Okay so, I wrote this song just for you Scott. I had been thinking about you for awhile now and I just. I missed you and I knew that whoever that person was walking around school before, that wasn’t Scott McCall.”
Scott looks down as he nods to what Stiles has said.
“I just wanted to fit in. But I never wanted to lose you along the way.”
“I know Scotty.”
Stiles gives him another hug and lets go, turning towards the piano.
“Well I wrote this for you. I just want to remind you to always be you.”
With that she takes a deep breath and begins playing.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror
Why am I doing this to myself?
Losing my mind on a tiny error,
I nearly left the real me on the shelf.
No, no, no, no, no...
Don't lose who you are in the blur of the stars!
Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing,
It's okay not to be okay.
Sometimes it's hard to follow your heart.
Tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
Just be true to who you are!
(Who you are) [x11]
Brushing my hair-do I look perfect?
I forgot what to do to fit the mould, yeah!
The more I try the less it's working, yeah
'Cause everything inside me screams
No, no, no, no, no, no, no no... yeah.
Don't lose who you are in the blur of the stars!
Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing,
It's okay not to be okay.
Sometimes it's hard to follow your heart.
But tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
There's nothing wrong with who you are!
Yes, no, egos, fake shows, like whoa!
Just go and leave me alone!
Real talk, real life, good love, goodnight,
With a smile that's my home!
That's my home, no...
No, no, no, no, no, no, no...
Don't lose who you are in the blur of the stars!
Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing,
It's okay not to be okay...
Sometimes it's hard to follow your heart.
Tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
Just be true to who you are!
Yeah yeah yeah
Stiles is pulled out of her seat by Scott who tackles her and holds her tight. She is stunned by the wetness seeping into her shirt and just holds Scott as he cries into his shoulder, knowing that he was always the sensitive kind of guy.
Scott just hold Stiles and lets go of all the tears. It hurt to know that he and Stiles were not the dynamic duo anymore and that was all on Scott. He had pushed her away from him and even though they’ll always be like family he knows there will always be that strain on their relationship. If only he had pulled his head out of his ass from the beginning none of this would’ve happened.
And that’s how Theo found them. Holding each other tight. He leans against the doorframe and has a gentle smile on his face. “Good work McCall.” he murmurs to himself. Knowing that neither would’ve heard with how wrapped up in each other they currently are. Theo looks down at his phone afterwards seeing a text from someone he hasn’t heard from since his move to Beacon Hills.
He texts back said person with a slight bit of dread in his heart.
What’s going on Tracy?
Come home. - Tracy