Archive of Our Own

Stiles critically studied the work of art sitting in front of him and then added some more salami. Perfect.

“I thought you were just making a snack. That sandwich is as big as your head!” Stiles’ dad walked into the kitchen, fastening the belt of his uniform.

“I’m a growing boy,” Stiles informed him and then took a huge bite out of the sandwich, smearing mustard over his chin.

His dad chuckled and shook his head before handing Stiles a paper towel. “You keep eating this way and you may actually put some meat on those skinny bones of yours.”

“’m wiry,” Stiles protested around the mouthful of food.

“Yeah, well, keep that ‘wiry’ ass of yours out of trouble tonight,” his dad replied. “I’ve got a cell with your name on it if I hear about any shenanigans.”

“Shenanigans? Really?” Stiles rolled his eyes. “I’ll be on my best behaviour. Scout’s honour, Sheriff.”

His dad snorted. “I doubt that; I remember my 18th birthday. Just make sure...”

“That you don’t hear about it, I know.” Stiles grinned.

It wasn’t actually his birthday, that had been a couple of weeks earlier, but he and Scott had decided to postpone their celebration in order for it to coincide with a rave being held in town. It had worked out great for Stiles because it meant that he got to spend his actual birthday with his dad and still have a night out with his best friend.

Scott showed up about an hour after Stiles’ dad had left to work the night shift at the police station. Stiles ran out of his house, munching on an apple, and climbed into Scott’s car – or, to be exact, Scott’s mom’s car.

He took one look at the dopey grin on Scott’s face and sighed. “Let me guess, Allison’s going to be at the rave too?”

“I overheard her and Lydia in the coffee shop discussing what they were going to wear to it,” Scott informed him knowledgably.

Stiles perked up at that. “Lydia’s going to be there? Awesome!”

He’d had a crush on Lydia since he was a kid but she’d never so much as glanced in his direction; he wasn’t exactly part of the popular crowd she and her best friend, Allison, hung around with. But things were different now; they’d all finished school and it was the last summer before the class went their separate ways. The school cliques didn’t mean anything anymore. Plus, he’d heard through the grapevine that Lydia and her on/off boyfriend Jackson were currently ‘off’ again so this night was definitely looking up.

The two boys parked in the hospital parking lot and dropped the keys off to Scott’s mom at her nurse’s station before walking towards the old warehouse where the rave was being held. They could hear the thumping bass from a street away and Stiles’ pulse rose with it. He was eighteen, he was finally done with high school and he was determined to have some fun tonight.

As they entered the warehouse, Stiles had to stop and let his eyes adjust to the brightly coloured lights strobing over an already large crowd of dancers. It was stiflingly hot and Stiles was glad that he’d decided to forgo his usual layered look in favour of just a t-shirt.

Scott nodded towards the bar and Stiles followed him, weaving through the crowd before ordering a couple of beers and flashing the bartender their fake ids.

“Hey, there you are. I was hoping I’d see you here tonight,” a voice said behind them and the boys turned as one to see Allison Argent, the unrequited love of Scott’s life.

“You were?” Scott blinked at her.

She smiled sweetly at him. “I was. Would you like to dance?”

Scott immediately shoved his beer at Stiles, without even looking at him, and followed Allison onto the dance floor. Stiles snorted and shook his head; maybe that love wasn’t so unrequited after all. He took a sip of his own beer, sighing in relief at the coolness of it, and went to lean against a nearby wall.

He surveyed the crowd, chuckling to himself as he saw Scott’s atrocious dancing nearly take out the girl behind him. He recognised a lot of people from school and waved at the ones he was friendly with. Turning his head towards the quieter seating area, his heart fell when he spotted Lydia sitting happily in Jackson’s lap as the arrogant jock held court with a group of guys from the lacrosse team. So much for ‘off again’. He sighed and looked away, his eyes locking momentarily with Derek Hale who was doing his customary lurking in a dark corner. The guy gave Stiles the creeps; he was always hanging around at gatherings like this, never joining in or talking to anyone, just glowering at the room in general. Not to mention that he was usually at least four years older than anyone else at the party; it was just weird.

Stiles knocked back the rest of his beer and went to order another one. He jumped as an arm landed heavily across his shoulder before he reached the bar.

“You should come and dance.” Scott grinned at him.

“Especially as you’re celebrating,” Allison said from next to him. “Scott just told me. Happy birthday, Stiles.”

“Thanks.” Stiles smiled at her. He’d always liked Allison; she was one of those popular girls who was popular because she was nice to everyone, not just because of who her friends were. “Not sure that dancing’s a good idea though. You’re already in danger of serious injury with Scott, let alone adding me to the mix.”

Scott gave an indignant, “Hey!” while Allison laughed.

“I think I’ll risk it,” she told him and grabbed his arm. “Come on, you don’t turn eighteen every day!”

As Allison began to drag him to the dance floor, Stiles managed to quickly hand Scott his beer back which his friend drained before following. Stiles soon lost himself to the music, swaying to the beat, waving his arms in the air and laughing at Allison’s exaggerated ducking from both his and Scott’s dance moves. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Scott tapped him on the hand and leaned in to speak to him.

“Dude, you’re getting checked out.”

“What?” Stiles asked. “By who?”

Scott looked slightly confused as he answered, “Everyone.”

Stiles glanced around them and realised that Scott was right. Okay, it wasn’t everyone but Stiles could see at least eight people giving him the once over; girls and a couple of guys.

“Weird...” Stiles muttered to himself.

He’d never deluded himself into believing that he was particularly good looking. He preferred to think of himself as having a quirky charm; definitely nothing that would get him this much attention. He looked at Scott who just shrugged in return.

One of the girls who’d been oh so obviously checking Stiles out also noticed him looking at her and walked over.

“Hey, cutie,” she said, giving him a flirtatious smile.

Stiles vaguely recognised her as being a year or two above them when they’d been at school. She was tall, gorgeous and way out of his league.

“Umm...hi,” he replied and winced at just how smooth he wasn’t.

The girl just giggled though. “You are too adorable.”

“Isn’t he?” Allison agreed. “It’s amazing that he’s single really.”

Stiles shot Allison a ‘what the fuck?’ look but she just gave him a sly smile and a tiny wink.

“It’s his birthday too,” she added.

“Really?” The girl’s eyes lit up and she gave Stiles another one of those smiles. “Well, you can’t have a birthday without getting a present. How about we start with you letting me buy you a drink?”

“Uh...”

“He’d love that!” Scott talked over Stiles and gave him a shove so that he was closer to the girl who then took Stiles’ hand and started to lead him away.

Stiles glanced back over his shoulder to see both Scott and Allison giving him the thumbs up.

The girl, whose name was Julia, turned out to be surprisingly good company. They chatted about their favourite music and films over a couple of drinks - Stiles was a sucker for a girl who could appreciate a good zombie movie – and by the time that Julia suggested they do some more dancing, he felt he was doing pretty well in the whole ‘talking to a really hot girl’ thing.

The music being played definitely wasn’t made for slow dancing but that didn’t seem to matter to Julia as she pushed in close to Stiles and linked her hands behind his neck. Stiles followed her movements, swaying against her, and when her thigh slipped between his own he was hit with a sudden burst of hunger and lust so strong that it took him completely by surprise.

“You want to take this somewhere else?”

Stiles was shocked by his own words, the whole thing was moving way too fast, but when Julia looked up at him with hooded eyes and said, ‘I thought you’d never ask’, it was game over.

This time Stiles was the one to take her hand and lead her out of the crowd towards the exit. He heard Scott call his name but ignored it in favour of getting Julia somewhere more private.

The fresh air hit him when they got outside and Stiles shook his head as it cleared a little of the lust fuelled fog which had fallen over him. Enough for him to know that he didn’t do this type of thing; it wasn’t like him at all. Then Julia wrapped her arms around him from behind, nuzzling at the side of his neck, and that thought drifted away like smoke.

He spun around, grabbing hold of Julia’s hips, and backed them into an old bricked up doorway out of sight of the people milling around the main entrance.

“It’s always the quiet ones,” Julia said with a laugh before she pulled Stiles’ head down into kiss.

And what a kiss it was. Stiles gasped as he felt a surge of something like electricity race through his body. He pressed closer to Julia, lifting his hands to cradle her face as he tried desperately to get more of whatever this feeling was. Julia writhed against him, her hands clutching his t-shirt in a tight grip which was slowly slackening as she fell further into the kiss. He could vaguely hear someone saying his name in an increasingly panicked tone but that wasn’t important; nothing was as important as this kiss and he only wanted more of it.

Suddenly he was torn away from Julia and thrown through the air to land heavily on the ground a few yards away. Immediately, he jumped back to his feet, glaring at Derek Hale who was now standing between Stiles and Julia.

“Stiles? What’s wrong with your eyes?” Scott’s voice sounded from one side and Stiles realised that he'd been the person calling his name but Stiles refused to look away from Derek.

“Move!” he said his voice little more than a growl.

“No,” Derek replied. “You’ve done enough damage for one night.”

Stiles frowned as he tried to figure out what that meant and then Derek took a single step to the side. It was enough to let Stiles see Julia slumped on the ground, her eyes shut and her face deathly pale, and that was more than enough for Stiles to snap back to himself.

“Oh my god! Julia!” He started forward but Derek stepped into his way again. “What..? Is she..?”

“She’s unconscious but she’ll be fine,” Derek told him. “You need to come with me.”

“Okay, what the fuck is going on?” Scott demanded, stomping over to the two of them.

At the same time, Stiles glared at Derek and said, “No way! I have to help her...call an ambulance or something.”

Derek glared right back. “McCall can do that. You’re coming with me.”

“McCall isn’t doing shit until someone tells me what just happened,” Scott said and crossed his arms.

Stiles sighed. “I don’t know, Scott. We were just...kissing and...”

“Enough!” Derek broke in and walked forward to grab Stiles’ arm. “McCall, you’re going to call 911 and tell them that you just found that girl passed out. You do not mention Stilinski, even once. You do not mention anything strange that you might have seen or I will find you and make you regret it. Do you understand?”

The expression on Derek’s face was ferocious, making it clear that he wasn’t making an idle threat, and Scott gulped in the face of it.

“Sure, I can do that.” He nodded and then rallied himself enough to ask, “Where are you taking Stiles?”

“He’s not taking me anywhere,” Stiles said trying to free himself from Derek’s grip but the guy had fists like iron.

Derek ignored him and answered Scott. “That’s none of your business but I will bring him back...if he’s a good boy,” he added in a tone too low for Scott to hear but which Stiles could hear just fine, causing him to balk.

Derek dragged the still struggling Stiles to the parking lot and practically threw him into the passenger seat of his car. By the time Stiles managed to right himself from the tangled heap he’d landed in, Derek was already sat in the driver’s seat and starting the car to peel away from the warehouse.

“Christ!” Stiles scrambled to do up his seatbelt and then grabbed his seat in a death grip. Something suddenly occurred to him. “How do you know mine and Scott’s names?”

Derek shot him a look. “That’s what you want to ask right now?”

Stiles flushed. One day he had to curb his habit of saying whatever popped into his head but it probably wouldn’t happen any time soon. “Okay, where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to see The Ash,” Derek told him.

Stiles waited for him to expand on that a little and then threw his arms up in the air when that didn’t happen. “Well, that’s not cryptic at all! What’s the ash?”

“Who,” Derek said. “The Ash is a person, that’s his title.”

“Well, I hope he’s more chatty than you because that still didn’t clear anything up and I really need someone to explain to me what the hell is going on,” Stiles grumbled.

Derek snorted as if that was funny somehow and Stiles glared at him before turning to glare out of the window instead. The car drove out of town a ways before turning off onto a dirt road which led into the woods. Suddenly, Stiles knew exactly where they were going.

“You’re taking me to your house? Oh my god, you’re actually going to kill me aren’t you?” Stiles babbled. “You’re going to kill me and then feed me through your wood chipper!”

“Shut up, Stilinski,” Derek growled. “I’m not going to kill you.”

“You know that Scott knows I’m with you, right?” Stiles kept going. “If I suddenly disappear, he’ll tell my dad exactly who I left with and then you’ll be in a world of trouble...unless you sneak back into town and kill Scott before he can talk to my dad..." He gasped. "You can’t kill Scott! I’ll come back and haunt your ass if you do that!”

“I’m not going to kill you or McCall!” Derek snapped. “Although you’re making that option seem really tempting right now. Just calm down and shut the hell up! The Ash lives in the mansion too.”

The Hale mansion; set way back in the woods outside of town and with that whole creepy and mysterious air that really old buildings tended to get. When they were kids, Stiles and Scott used to dare each other to climb over the iron fence surrounding the mansion but they never got further than peeking at the place from a distance and speculating as to what the Hale family did in there. Then about six years ago there had been a fire which had killed most of the family and, after that tragedy, it wasn't really fun to spy on the building or the remaining Hales anymore.

For once, Stiles did as he was told and kept quiet for the rest of the journey. He’d had a really confusing night and it didn’t seem as if it was going to get any better from here so he took the time to compose himself before he had to face the rest of it.

The gates to the mansion opened automatically as they approached and Derek drove into a spot directly outside the imposing front doors. Stiles climbed out of the car and glanced back at the gates which had already closed, cutting off any escape in that direction.

"Come on," Derek said, nodding his head towards the mansion door.

Stiles took a deep breath and followed, looking around to take in their surroundings as they walked through the halls. The inside of the mansion wasn't at all like he thought it would be. Considering the appearance of the outside, he'd been expecting something grandiose and pretentious; lots of dark wood and oil paintings. Instead it was very modern; bright and airy with stone floors and white walls. It was still pretty pretentious though.

"You live here?" he asked Derek as they passed some weird twisted metal modern art sculpture. "This place is like an art gallery."

"The mansion is decorated to the tastes of the current Ash," Derek said and, as he glanced around, Stiles caught a momentary flash of sadness across his face. "It looked a lot different when my parents were alive."

Stiles nodded but he couldn't really say much to that; having lost his own mother years ago, he understood that sort of pain never really went away. The fire which had taken Derek's parents and siblings lives had burned high and bright enough to be seen from town and had left only the bare bones of the building behind so it wasn't even as if their stuff had been moved into storage, it had all been destroyed. Derek couldn't occasionally take the time to rifle through their belongings and remember the good times the way that Stiles did with the boxes in his attic.

He felt a rush of sympathy for the other guy but didn't have time to think any more about it as they walked through yet another set of doors into a wide hall. Again it was ridiculously 'tasteful' and almost entirely painted in white. It was still in the middle of the night so the lighting came from, what seemed like, hundreds of candles lit around the room but even Stiles could tell that the huge amount of windows on two of the walls meant that the room would be flooded with sunlight during the day. There was a raised platform at the opposite end of the room with a desk and a snazzy looking computer, which put Stiles' own to shame, as well as a winding staircase leading up to a mezzanine filled with bookcases. Stiles startled as he realised there was someone up there.

"Mr Stilinski, at last," the person stepped out of a shadow and Stiles realised it was Derek's uncle, Peter. "I was beginning to think that we were all mistaken about you."

"Umm...okay?" Stiles said as he watched Peter Hale descend the staircase.

Peter paid him no attention though, instead raising an eyebrow at Derek.

"He fed off a human girl," Derek told Peter and Stiles’ brain stuttered to a halt.

What? Not a single part of that sentence made sense.

Peter gave Stiles a critical once over. "Fed? Now that is interesting."

Stiles crossed his arms. "You know what would be even more interesting? If someone told me what the hell was going on."

Derek casually reached across and smacked Stiles upside the head. "Show the Ash some respect."

Stiles rubbed the back of his head and grumbled to himself while Peter...The Ash...made some dismissive motion with his hand.

"That's alright, Mr Stilinski's obviously had a trying night," he said as he walked onto the platform to take a seat at his desk. "He deserves some answers."

Derek grunted and ushered Stiles into a lone seat in the middle of the room, facing the platform. Looking up at Peter, Stiles realised that they were actually in some modern, fucked up, version of a throne room.

"I'm afraid that, before we begin, I do have some unhappy news for you," Peter told Stiles. "I regret to tell you this but...it appears that the Sheriff is not your real father."

He gave Stiles a look of such fake sympathy that Stiles had to work really hard to refrain from rolling his eyes. Derek packed a wallop and he didn't want another smack for disrespecting his beloved Ash. However, the fact that both Peter and Derek were obviously waiting for some sort of outburst from him made it impossible for Stiles to resist slouching in his seat a little.

He looked Peter in the eye and said, "And? Is that it?"

"You already knew," Derek said as he studied Stiles.

"Of course I knew, my dad wouldn't hide something like that," Stiles told him. "And for the record, he is my real father. He raised me, he loves me...he's my dad not whatever scumbag got my mom pregnant and then abandoned her. Not that it’s any business of yours."

Peter cracked a small smile at that. "You really are a lot like your mother."

Stiles blinked. "You knew my mom?"

"I did." Peter inclined his head. “If she hadn't been taken from us so suddenly, we wouldn't be in this position right now. She would have already told you what you are."

"What I am?" Stiles frowned.

"You're Fae," Derek said, earning himself an irritated look from Peter who was obviously trying to draw things out for dramatic effect.

"Fae?" Stiles scrunched up his face as he tried to place that word. "Wait! Like fairies? That kind of Fae?"

Derek snorted. "Do I look like a fairy to you?"

"I don't know; give you a tiara and a pretty, pretty wand..." Stiles snarked then shrank back in surprise when Derek growled at him. Actually freaking growled.

"You're talking about human mythology," Peter said, as if he couldn't see the squabbling happening in front of him. "It’s a peculiar trait of theirs; turning things they don’t understand into ancient myths and bedtime stories. They get most of them wrong though and the whole ‘Fae/Fairy’ thing is the worst victim of that. Fairies are a type of Fae, just as we are types of Fae; the word covers all our kind.”

Stiles couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes this time. “Okay, I’ll play along if it gets me out of here quicker. What type of ‘Fae’ am I?”

Peter hummed. “I don’t know yet. I expected you to follow your mother but if you’re feeding on...”

“Alright, that’s it!” Stiles stood up angrily. “You can mess with me but you don’t get to drag my mom into your whole crazy delusion. I don’t know what happened tonight and I don’t know what your problem is but I do know that I’m out of here!”

He’d almost reached the doors when Derek grabbed hold of his arm again and started dragging him back towards the chair.

“Get the fuck off me!” Stiles yelled as he was manhandled yet again.

“Sit down, be quiet or, next time, I’ll tie you to the chair,” Derek told him.

Stiles opened his mouth to curse at him some more when the doors suddenly opened and a well dressed woman rushed into the room.

“My apologies, Ash,” she said, bowing to Peter, “but she wouldn’t stop.”

Then another woman swept into the room followed by a group of men, including...Allison’s dad? Stiles looked at him in confusion.

“Morrigan,” Peter said, appearing completely unconcerned about the interruption.

“Ash,” the woman sneered.

Stiles registered a rumbling noise which had started when the woman appeared and seemed to be getting louder in volume. He looked around and realised it was coming from Derek...whose eyes were suddenly glowing gold and his teeth had become a hell of a lot bigger and sharper.

The woman also noticed and gave Derek an evil smirk. “Ash, tell your guard dog to heel.”

At that, Derek let out a roar and jumped towards her. Immediately, Allison's dad pulled out, what Stiles could only describe as, a broadsword from seemingly nowhere and moved closer to the woman who suddenly had a sword of her own.

"Derek!" Peter's voice rang through the hall, full of an authority which had everyone freezing and turning towards him; except for the woman, who laughed as if she was having a great time. When he seemed satisfied that the fighting had ceased, Peter continued in a normal voice. "Kate, this is light Fae territory; you can't just stroll in here and pick a fight with my nephew."

"But it's so much fun," Kate pouted causing Derek to growl at her again.

"We understand that Stilinski's powers have manifested after all," Allison's dad said, his eyes flickering to Stiles briefly. "We were...concerned. He's apparently almost killed a human already and, from what I hear, it's only blind luck that it didn't happen in front of a hundred human witnesses."

Stiles felt like he was going mad. It was one thing to have Derek and his crazy uncle acting as if this Fae thing was real, it was quite another to have an entire group of people talking about it as if it were a normal everyday thing. And Allison's dad was a proper, upstanding, member of the Beacon Hills community; he'd given talks at the high school and everything...he did business with the Sheriff's department for crying out loud.

"We're dealing with Mr Stilinski," Peter said and Stiles wanted to shout at them. He wanted to point out that he was still in the room but Derek put a hand on his arm in a way that Stiles thought was meant to be reassuring apart from the fact that his hand had claws and he was still growling lowly at Kate.

Allison's dad smirked at Peter. "I'm sure that's what all the yelling we heard when we arrived was; you 'dealing' with him. We just want to make sure that you aren't going to take advantage of the situation to turn Stilinski towards your clan instead of ours."

"Not that you'd ever do something like that, Peter," Kate added slyly.

Peter rolled his eyes but didn't rise to the bait. "We hadn't got as far as his decision yet. I was just explaining about our kind; obviously he hasn't had the education that the other children have. Also we don't know what kind of Fae he is yet."

"He's not a Selkie?" Kate asked, looking over at Stiles for the first time. "From what I heard, he put the mojo on quite a few people while he was dancing tonight and considering who his mother was..."

"Generally, Selkies don't then feed on humans," Derek grit out as if it took a lot of effort to talk civilly to the woman. At the same time he tightened his fingers on Stiles' arm warningly, anticipating the outburst at another mention of his mom. Stiles winced at the iron grip and swallowed his words.

"I've called the Gama to examine him," Peter said.

"Well, while we wait, let's get the kid up to speed on a few things." Kate clapped her hands together.

"At last!" Stiles burst out and then glared at Derek whose grip had tightened yet again. "What? I think I'm entitled to some answers after sitting through all this shit, don't you? Dude, stop with the growling already."

Kate let out another delighted laugh. "Oh, I like this one. He's got a mouth on him...cute too."

She winked at him and Stiles had to suppress a shudder as he flashed back to Julia calling him 'cutie' and then to her slumped on the ground.

One of the guys who'd arrived with Kate disappeared for a moment before returning with a chair which he set opposite Stiles before Kate sat in it. She was certainly making herself at home and Stiles glanced at Peter who was looking very irritated at that fact.

"I'm Kate Argent and I'm the Morrigan," Kate told him, leaning forward with her arms on her thighs and giving Stiles a clear view down her cleavage. Stiles got the feeling that it was a practised move. "That means that I’m in charge of all the dark Fae in the local area."

"Dark Fae?" Stiles asked, remembering Peter's earlier mention of the mansion being light Fae territory. "Is that like the Sith to their Jedis?" Stiles nodded his head towards Peter, who had left his little throne platform and was standing next to Derek.

One of the 'dark Fae' guys snorted in amusement, grinning at Stiles.

Kate also smiled. "In the way that we're the evil to their good? No. But in the way that we have far less restricting rules about how to live and have a lot more fun? Definitely."

She was a Star Wars fan; Stiles had to give her props for that.

"That's simplifying things a little much, don't you think?" Peter asked.

She was stopped from answering by the arrival of Scott's boss. Stiles stared at him; what the hell?

"Gama-senninn," Peter greeted him with a tight smile. "Thank you for coming out so late."

Deaton returned a smile just as strained. "Not a problem, Ash." Then he turned towards Stiles with a far more genuine smile."How are feeling, Stiles?"

"Confused," Stiles answered. "Seriously, is the whole town part of this Fae stuff?"

Deaton chuckled. "I'll explain that to you during the examination."

"Examination? Aren't you a vet?" Stiles asked incredulously.

"As far as the humans are concerned I am," Deaton told him, not looking at all offended. "To the Fae I'm...something else. A Sage with a medical bent would probably be the best way to describe it but I can explain that to you during the exam too. Come on."

He turned to leave the room and Peter stepped back, sweeping out a hand to indicate that Stiles should follow Deaton. Stiles jumped up eagerly, glad to get away from the hall for a while and talk to someone he actually kind of knew.

Deaton led him to an actual medical examination room that looked to have a laboratory attached. Stiles wanted to be surprised that this would be in the mansion but he was just too confused.

He hopped up to sit on the bed Deaton pointed him to and tried not to flinch too much as Deaton drew some blood from his arm.

"Go ahead, start asking," Deaton told him as he began dropping small amounts of Stiles' blood into lots of different stone bowls.

Stiles took a deep breath and dived into the area he wanted to know most about. "They keep saying that my mom was a Fae, that she was...a Selkie?"

"She was," Deaton nodded with a small smile. "That means she was a shifter; she could turn into a seal if she had her pelt."

"You're trying to tell me that my mom was a seal? Like a balance a ball on her nose, eating raw fish type of seal?" Stiles shook his head. "No, you people are crazy. I'm starting to buy the whole Fae thing but..."

Deaton had begun pulling various vials of powder out of his bag but he paused to look at Stiles. "I know it's a lot to take in. Normally, you would have learned about all of this while you were growing up, however..." He sighed. "None of us were sure if the Sheriff got your mother pregnant or if she was already pregnant when they met. A Fae child can only be produced from two Fae parents; if it had been your dad then you'd be human with no abilities at all."

"And if I was human then you'd be risking exposure by telling me the Fae stuff," Stiles guessed.

Deaton nodded. "Exactly. Keeping our world hidden from humans is the biggest rule for all Fae."

Stiles scrubbed his hand over his head. "My mom knew. They never hid the fact that dad isn't my biological father from me so she knew I'm Fae. Why didn't she tell me?"

He wasn't really expecting an answer but Deaton gave him one anyway. "You were so young when she died, Stiles. Would you have understood what she was telling you? Would you have understood the need to keep it a secret or would you have run to tell Scott at the first opportunity?"

Deaton had a point and it did make him feel a bit better.

"I think the ship might have sailed on the whole Scott not finding out thing anyway." Stiles deliberately steered the subject to something less emotionally charged. "He saw whatever the hell it was I did tonight. You know he's not going to leave that alone and it's not like I can lie to him for shit."

Deaton glanced around the room quickly as if making sure that they were alone. "I'd keep that to yourself, Stiles, and work on the lying thing because if he did know about us and the Ash or the Morrigan found out they will have him killed."

"What?" Stiles gasped and looked at Deaton wide-eyed. "Killed? Are you serious? No, no...they've been freaking out about me almost... killing Julia." He gulped, still trying to wrap his mind around that one. "They wouldn't..."

"Stiles..." Deaton looked at him sympathetically. "They're 'freaking out' about the fact you were so close to doing that in front of witnesses. The majority of Fae view humans as food. They won't care about getting rid of one human boy and I, personally, quite like that particular human boy; I'd hate to have to train someone else for the clinic."

For all that Deaton said the last bit flippantly, his eyes showed genuine affection for Scott, putting him firmly in the category of Fae who saw humans as more than just food. Still, though, there was no way that Stiles could keep this from Scott and it could get him killed. Stiles felt one of his old panic attacks building.

"Look, if it really comes to it," Deaton continued, eying Stiles in worry, "its not unheard of for Fae to claim a human as their own, a pet if you will. That human will be privy to our world and the claim will give them protection from other Fae. I'd keep that as a last resort though; it's lifelong commitment."

Stiles slumped in relief and glared at Deaton for making him panic so much; he couldn't have started with that part instead of the terrifying 'you're going to get your best friend killed' bit?

Deaton ignored the glaring and turned back to his work, adding the random powders to the bowls and mixing them with Stiles' blood. Stiles kind of wanted to ask what it was he was doing but figured that he should try and find out as much as he could about the Fae stuff while he had the chance.

"Okay, so you said you were going to explain why everyone around here seems to suddenly be Fae..." Stiles prompted.

"Right," Deaton nodded without taking his eyes away from what he was doing. "Beacon Hills is sort of special. It's not unusual to find a lot of Fae in a city as they're attracted to the amount of humans there but not so much in small towns. The main reason there are so many here is because of the school."

"The high school? What's so important about that?" Stiles asked. "Trust me, I went there; it's nothing to write home about."

"Fae prefer to send their children to a human school. It teaches them extra skills on how to blend in among humans, how to interact with them. However, given that a Fae comes into their power while in their late teens, there have been more than a few slip ups when a hormonal Fae couldn't control their abilities during school." Deaton paused as a puff of green smoke erupted from the bowl he was currently mixing. He shook his head and put that bowl to one side before continuing. "About 20 years ago, the elders decided that it was far less trouble to use only a few specific schools for the Fae children to attend. It makes it easier to control any fallout if there is a slip up."

"That sort of makes sense. So Beacon Hills High became one of those lucky schools which, I'm guessing, means that Allison is one of the Fae who went there." Stiles had been wondering about her since he first recognised her dad.
Deaton smiled at him, seemingly pleased that Stiles was catching onto things so quickly. "She and a few others you probably know...but I'll let you find out who for yourself."

"Gee, thanks," Stiles made a face. "Next question; what the hell is the deal with the whole light Fae/dark Fae thing?"

Deaton laughed. "It's going to take a lot longer than we have right now to explain that. Basically? The Fae are split into two clans, light and dark. When a Fae comes into their ability they have to pick which clan they wish to belong to and that chosen clan will come to define them; protect them if they ever need it."

"So I need to choose a side." Stiles dropped his head into his hands. "I don't have to do that tonight, right?"

"I'm sure they'll give you some time to decide but probably not too long," Deaton told him. "I've got some books at home that can give you more details to help you choose; call into the clinic tomorrow to pick them up. I've also got some books on your particular type of Fae."

Stiles' head shot back up at that. "You know?"

Deaton nodded. "You're an Incubus. You feed off sexual energy," he explained at Stiles' blank look.

"You're kidding me, right?" Stiles looked at Deaton hopefully but his heart fell when the man shook his head. "So I almost killed Julia with a kiss. A kiss! Oh god, I'm going to die a virgin, aren't I? Because if I actually had sex with someone..."

"I'm fairly sure that you're not going to die a virgin, Stiles," Deaton said dryly. "You just have to learn to control how much energy you take from your partner. It'll take a little bit of training but you'll be fine."

"How the hell do I train in that?" Stiles asked incredulously.

"By having sex with a Fae."

Stiles jumped at the sound of Peter's voice which caused him to fall off the bed, his limbs flailing wildly. He groaned from the floor; the fall hadn't hurt anything but his pride, especially when he realised that Peter (along with the entire group from the hall, judging by the amount of feet he could see from his current position) had just heard Stiles admit that he was still a virgin.

He laid there a moment more before dragging himself to his feet; best to get this over with. He was met with varying expressions of amusement.

Deciding to rise above it all, Stiles turned to Peter. "How is sleeping with a Fae going to help the whole 'killing people with sex' thing?"

"Because we're stronger than humans," Peter told him with a slightly creepy smile. "You should be able to feed from a Fae without accidentally killing them which means you'll be able to practise your control with one."

Stiles eyed Peter uneasily, beginning to get the feeling that he was maybe, kind of, possibly, offering his services in that area.

Kate, on the other hand, made it clear that she was offering.

"An Incubus, it's been a long time since I've heard of one of those," she stepped closer to Stiles and began running her fingers up and down his arm. "And an innocent one...well, that's just delicious."

"Umm..." Stiles backed away from the slightly terrifying woman slowly, cursing inwardly when his back hit the bed and he couldn't go any further.

He glanced around the room desperately looking for help but didn't get any; Kate's henchmen were looking as if they wished they were in Stiles' place, Peter was busy having some sort of silent argument with Derek and Deaton was looking between Stiles and Kate, seemingly lost in thought. In the end it was Allison's dad who stepped in, although he did it with a smirk that Stiles thought was rather unnecessary.

"Kate, it's almost dawn and we have a full day tomorrow," he said. "I'm sure that Stilinski would like the opportunity to go home; he has a lot to think over in the next twelve days."

And there it was; he had a measly twelve days to decide which clan he was choosing to side with.

Kate shot Allison's dad a look which showed her displeasure at his interruption but did back away from Stiles. Not before she stroked the side of his face. "Another time, sweetie."

After that, Peter announced that they would all meet back at the mansion in twelve days time for Stiles to choose his clan and Stiles was finally allowed to leave. To his relief, Deaton offered to drive him home so at least he didn't have to put up with Derek's crazy driving again.

The house was empty when he finally got home, there were still a few hours left in his dad's shift, so Stiles didn't have to worry about sneaking around. He poured himself a giant bowl of cereal and watched infomercials to distract himself from everything he'd learned in the past few hours. Eventually, he managed to drag himself off the sofa and to his bedroom. He pulled out his phone to set the alarm, wanting to make sure he had plenty of time to visit Deaton and pick up those books, and saw that he had a text message from Scott. Opening it, he felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders when he read that Julia was fine and didn't remember anything about what had happened. It also contained a demand for Stiles to give Scott an explanation the next day...or later that day, but Stiles would deal with that after he'd slept.

He fell onto his bed without even undressing, completely exhausted, and was asleep in seconds.

He was woken by someone knocking on the front door. Cursing quietly to himself, he jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs to answer it before whoever it was woke his dad who was bound to be home and sleeping off his night shift by now. He flung open the door and then blinked at the sight of Allison and Lydia on his front porch. Lydia Martin at his house!

"That's what you were wearing at the rave," Lydia commented, looking at his rumpled clothes. "If I didn't already know exactly where you disappeared to last night, I'd be almost impressed."

Three things occurred to Stiles in quick succession: 1) Lydia had actually noticed him at the rave 2) She had paid close enough attention to know what he'd been wearing and 3) she knew where he'd been last night...which meant that she knew about Fae. It was the last point that shook him out of his stupor and he stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind him so that they could talk without his dad hearing them.

"I’m really sorry we woke you," Allison told him. "I should've realised you'd still be asleep, considering what time my dad got home. I guess I was just excited when he told me what happened."

"Then she dragged me out of bed so that we could come over and give you a big Fae makeover," Lydia informed him.

"Umm...makeover?" Stiles scratched his head, still half asleep and not sure that this was really happening.

"What she means..." Allison gave Lydia a significant look, "is that we figured you could use someone to talk to. Someone your own age."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "That too but mainly it's the makeover. You're an Incubus, Stiles, you need to start dressing to impress."

"Your dad told you that part too, huh?" Stiles asked Allison wryly and she blushed.

"Actually, my aunt did. Kate...the Morrigan," Allison clarified. "She's my dad's sister."

That made sense because he already knew she was an Argent and that she wasn't Allison's scary-ass mother. He blamed the avalanche of weirdness at the mansion for him not figuring it out sooner.

"Did she mention that she hit on me?" Stiles asked. "Because I've got to tell you, she could've picked a better time."

Lydia waved a hand dismissively, "Oh, she hits on any young Fae with a dick. You should see her around Jackson, it's sickening."

"Jackson's Fae too? Oh my god, it's your entire group isn't it? Danny as well?" Stiles asked as he pieced it together.

Allison nodded. "Look, go and get changed then we'll take you for coffee and tell you everything."

Stiles followed her instructions and two hours later found himself being dragged around the out of town mall by the two hottest and most popular girls from his old class. He had his promised macchiato in his hands but even the wonder that was coffee couldn't stop him from gaping at Allison.

"You're dark Fae?" he finally managed to ask.

She giggled. "It's a family thing; my aunt is the Morrigan, after all."

"Yeah, but...you're one of the nicest people in town," Stiles told her, earning himself a delighted smile. "I know that Kate said dark Fae aren't evil but you have to admit that the name sort of conjures up certain connotations."

"It's not that cut and dry," Allison told him. "There are nice people in the dark and there are nasty people in the light. More often than not it comes down to which side your family are on because, technically, the two sides aren't supposed to mix."

"Which is exactly why I chose the opposite side to my parents," Lydia interjected as she held a shirt against Stiles. "There's no way I'm going to put up with their bullshit for the rest of my life."

Stiles wasn't sure how to respond to that, the Martin's fights during parent/teacher night were legendary so he kind of understood where she was coming from but they were still her parents.

He was saved from having to think up a reply however because Lydia kept talking.

"Besides there’s way too much black clothing going on with the dark Fae; so cliché and not good with my complexion."

"So you're light?" Stiles looked between the two girls in confusion. "I thought you said the two sides couldn't mix.

"I said 'technically'," Allison said. "After they came up with the whole 'Fae kids going to same school' idea, that whole area has started to become more complicated."

"Because you meet each other and become friends before you align with a side," Stiles guessed.

"Smart boy." Lydia looked at him in approval which made Stiles preen a little.

By the time the girls had dropped Stiles back at his house with bags full of new clothes which they insisted looked great on him, he still had no idea how he was going to pick a clan but had a lot more information to think about. He struggled up the stairs to dump the clothing, as well as the twenty or so books he'd picked up from Deaton (the girls had helpfully swung by the veterinarian clinic on the way back) and instantly dropped it all in shock when he walked into his bedroom to find Scott swinging around in his desk chair. He may also have let out a girly yelp but he wasn't going to admit to that.

"Where the hell have you been?" Scott yelled and Stiles suddenly remembered that he hadn't texted Scott to tell him he was okay and hadn't been axe-murdered by Derek.

"Shit! Scott, man, I'm so sorry..."

"Sorry?" Scott's voice was getting pretty high pitched. "You're sorry? I thought you might be dead. I thought I'd have to tell your dad the truth about what happened last night so that we could hunt down Derek Hale and I don't even know what happened last night!"

"It's complicated..?" Stiles tried.

"Uncomplicate it!" Scott demanded. "Your eyes were glowing blue, Stiles. Actually glowing like something out of a horror movie and that Julia chick just collapsed and now it's like her memory's been wiped because she can't remember anything after leaving the warehouse and Derek..."

Stiles stepped forward and put his hand on Scott's arm, worried his friend was going to work himself into an asthma attack. "Breathe, Scott."

Scott actually did what Stiles suggested and took a few deep breaths to calm himself before he looked into Stiles' eyes and said, "Tell me, please. Whatever it is, I can help."

Stiles groaned inwardly; Scott was using the puppy eyes and Stiles had always been helpless in the face of those. He weighed things in his mind and in the end it came down to one thing; Scott was his best friend and he couldn't imagine going through any of this without him. He didn't want to have this whole secret life and not have Scott know about it. Stiles needed someone normal to talk to before he went crazy and he knew that he couldn't talk to his dad; he couldn't bring himself to tell him that the woman he loved had lied to him the entire time they'd been together, it would break his heart.

Stiles nodded to himself and sat on the bed before relaying every single thing that had happened between Derek dragging him away from the warehouse to the present moment. It took a while and by the time Stiles’ Story Time finished, they were both sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall, with the remnants of a hastily cobbled together dinner on their laps.

"So...Allison's a Fae?" Scott asked and Stiles stared at him in disbelief.

"That's the bit you're choosing to focus on?"

"What type of Fae is she?" Scott ignored Stiles' outburst.

Stiles sighed. "She's a Fairy Queen."

"Fairy Queen," Scott repeated dreamily. "It suits her."

"It's actually...Fairy Queens aren't what you're imagining," Stiles told him. "They're not all sweetness and light, they're fierce warriors. Apparently, Allison's a dab hand with a bow and arrow."

Scott hummed happily and Stiles rolled his eyes then collected the empty plates to take downstairs. By the time he got back, Scott had managed to snap himself out of his Allison-induced stupor and was sitting on the edge of the bed.

He looked up when Stiles entered the room. "So what's Lydia?"

"Lydia is a Muse, rather appropriately, and is light," Stiles told him, leaning against his desk and remembering all the bad poetry he'd written in her honour. "Danny's also with the light and is a Siren while Jackson is something called a Mama Wata and is with the dark."

Scott scrunched up his face. "A Mama What-a?"

"A snake shifter, which is even more appropriate than Lydia being a muse." Stiles grinned at Scott's snort. "Lydia said that he can shoot venom at people and that's just all kinds of..."

Stiles stopped talking as he heard a noise coming from his outside his window. He walked closer to get a better look then stumbled backwards and landed on his ass when Derek suddenly came into view. He immediately jumped back to his feet and threw open the window.

"What the hell are you doing?" he all but screamed at Derek who just pushed him to one side and climbed into the room. "Oh yes, by all means, come into my bedroom uninvited. Have you been spying on me? From my own windowsill, you giant creeper?"

"The Ash sent me to make sure that you weren't letting humans in on our secrets," Derek told him before giving a meaningful look in Scott's direction.

"Oh! OH! No, it's okay, he's mine. I'm claiming him!" Stiles turned to Scott. "I claim thee, Scott McCall!" Then he turned back to Derek. "Did I do that right?"

Derek rolled his eyes so hard that Stiles was surprised that he didn't strain something and then gave an exasperated sigh.

"Do you take responsibility for him and his actions?" he asked in a flat voice.

Stiles actually had to think about that for a moment because Scott had been known to do some pretty stupid stuff. "...yes."

Derek shrugged. "Fine, he's yours. I'll tell the Ash."

"That was it?" Scott asked. "We don't have to do some weird freaky sex stuff?"

"What?" Stiles yelped.

"I'm not saying that I want to do weird freaky sex stuff," Scott said, looking a little panicky. "Not with you because you're like my brother and that's just eww. But considering you're an Incubus...and...and the word 'claim' can mean a lot of stuff!" He practically yelled the last part and then crossed his arms across his chest defensively.

Stiles blinked at him and Derek covered his face with his hand and gave another one of those sighs.

"O-kay..." Stiles desperately tried to think of something to break the awkward silence. "So what are you, anyway?" he asked Derek. "I mean, you've got the glowy eyes and the claws and the pointy teeth..."

"I'm a Wolf Shifter," Derek said and that did make sense considering the amount of growling Stiles had heard him do.

"Can you turn into an actual wolf?" Stiles looked at him hopefully.

Derek glared back at him. "If I want to and I don't want to right now."

Another awkward silence descended over the three of them which lasted a good ten minutes until Stiles couldn't take it anymore.

"Well, thanks for the visit," he said to Derek. "It's been swell, really. Was there anything else you needed before you leave and promise never to darken my windowsill again?"

Derek looked uncomfortable and then gritted out, "My uncle would like to know how you're coping with your...hunger."

Stiles had had a brief discussion with Deaton about just that thing earlier when he'd collected the books from him. Deaton had made it clear that, because his abilities were so new, Stiles would need to feed on people's energy fairly regularly until he reached more of an even keel but even then the hunger would only slow down, not stop. Stiles wasn't exactly comfortable with that thought but Deaton told him that if he denied that hunger, it would grow until it reached the point where he would be helpless to stop himself attacking anyone just to feed and probably end up killing them.

He got the feeling that Peter's question was more about giving another subtle offer to let Stiles feed from him than out of genuine concern. And from Derek's uncomfortable fidgeting, he knew that too and was pissed that he had to play some twisted matchmaker between them.

"Tell him that I'm fine right now," Stiles said despite the fact he could actually feel the hunger building already, now that he knew what to look for and how to differentiate it from his normal hunger for food. It was manageable for the time being, though. "I'll be able to work something out when it gets worse." He added, making it clear that he wasn't going to take Peter up on his offer.

Derek seemed grateful to hear that and gave a nod before jumping out of the window. Stiles leaned out to see that Derek had landed gracefully despite the jump being two stories and was strolling to his car as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Awesome..." Stiles murmured, impressed despite himself.

Then he turned to confront Scott about that whole 'freaky sex' comment and find out what else was going on in his best friend's head.

Two days later and Stiles couldn’t get over how much his life had changed. He and Scott were hanging out at the bowling alley with Lydia, Allison, Jackson and Danny; something which never would have happened even a week earlier. At least Jackson was still being a dick; if he suddenly started acting nice then Stiles would probably be forced to conclude that this was all a really vivid hallucination.

They were split into three teams; Lydia and Jackson, of course. Scott had practically pushed Stiles over in his determination to be on a team with Allison, which left Stiles with Danny. Like Allison, Danny had always been friendly enough to Stiles; they had just run in different circles, so Stiles didn’t have any problem with that arrangement. In fact the only person in the entire group who had a problem at all was Jackson.

“Can’t you put a leash on your pet, Stilinski?” Jackson sneered, watching Allison and Scott whispering and giggling together as Scott prepared to take his throw.

“Hey, man, cool it,” Danny told Jackson who winced when Lydia smacked his arm. Danny smirked at that and then turned to Stiles as Lydia dragged Jackson away to buy her a soda and, no doubt, yell at him. “Just ignore him, okay?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Stiles said. “I’ve been putting up with his douchey comments for years, not to mention all the times he purposely hit me during lacrosse practise. I’m pretty much used to him by now.”

“I’d tell you that he’s not so bad when you get to know him but that’s not really true,” Danny said and Stiles laughed. “He does have his good points though; I mean he really stood by me when I came out and that’s worth a lot.”

Stiles actually remembered that; the boys on the lacrosse team hadn’t been exactly pleased when one of their own suddenly announced that he was gay. There had been about a week of rough shoulder-checking and nasty comments made to Danny before Jackson stepped in. As captain of the team whatever he said went, and sometimes he didn’t even need to say anything, which he’d proved when he dragged Danny into a kiss during the middle of practise and then punched the first guy who dared to make a comment about it. The whole ‘Danny is gay’ scandal had died down pretty quickly after that.

“Can I ask you something?” Stiles shifted in his seat so that he was fully facing Danny.

“Is it if you’re attractive to gay guys?” Danny smiled and Stiles chuckled as he recalled the stupid question he’d once asked Danny due to some ridiculous argument he’d been having with Scott. “In that outfit, I might give you a different answer.”

Stiles flushed and squirmed a little while Danny laughed softly. Stiles really wasn’t comfortable in the, far tighter than he’d normally wear, wardrobe which Lydia had made him purchase. In fact, he’d been planning on throwing on his normal hoodie and jeans until Lydia and Allison had shown up at his house so that they could dress him for his first proper outing as a Fae. Girls could be terrifying.

“As I recall, you never actually gave me an answer back then,” Stiles told him and then blinked in surprise when he realised how flirty that had sounded.

Danny just gave him a knowing look though. “The Incubus stuff takes a bit of getting used to, huh?”

“You’ve no idea,” Stiles replied. “It’s like I’m just me, the same old Stiles that I’ve always been, but the hungrier I get the more suggestive everything I say sounds. Even if I don’t actually mean it that way...uh, no offense.”

“None taken,” Danny assured him but he looked concerned. “What are you doing about the feeding?”

“Nothing yet,” Stiles admitted. “But I think I’m going to have to figure out something pretty soon. I just don’t want to hurt anyone, you know?”

Stiles had been able to feel the hunger steadily rising. It was like an itch under his skin and he guessed that he’d need to feed tomorrow at the latest. He just wasn’t sure how he was going to go about it. He needed to find a Fae to feed off and he certainly wasn’t going to call the Ash or the Morrigan...or Deaton, not that he’d offered but Stiles still thought it was important to state that even if it was just to himself.

“I think you’re worrying too much,” Danny was telling him. “I’ve heard that having sex with an Incubus is amazing and I’m sure that story wouldn’t be circulating if it actually hurt the other person.”

“Maybe...” Stiles sighed, not really believing it.

Danny frowned again and was obviously going to say more but Scott started whooping over the fact that he’d scored his first strike in the history of ever and ran over to hug Stiles in celebration.

“Oh look, McCall actually got some points on the board.” Jackson sauntered back into their seating area. “Someone call ESPN.”

“I notice that you haven’t had a strike yet,” Stiles pointed out.

Jackson’s eyes flashed at him, turning very reptilian for a second, before he marched past them all to pick up a ball. “We’ll see about that.”

Stiles looked at Danny who rolled his eyes before leaning forward to whisper, “Watch this.”

Just as Jackson eyed up the pins and was about to let go of the ball, Danny started to whistle lowly. Stiles could almost see the music moving through the air, sort of like a heat shimmer above hot concrete. The shimmer reached Jackson and his arm suddenly jerked sending the ball careening into the lane next to theirs where it did indeed score a strike, just not one that counted in their own game.

Scott, Lydia and Allison all burst out laughing and Stiles turned to Danny in awe.

“You rock so hard!”

“I know,” Danny told him with a smug smile.

Jackson stomped back over to them and then leaned in close to Danny who just raised an eyebrow at him, refusing to be intimidated.

“It’s on, Mahealani!” Jackson hissed, his eyes doing that snake thing again.

“Bring it, Whittemore,” Danny replied calmly.

“Every single time,” Lydia muttered. “I swear bowling is like some weird foreplay for you two.”

Danny smirked at her, “For the last time, Lydia. I won’t screw your boyfriend so that you can watch.”

“Spoilsport,” she pouted for a few moments before turning a considering eye on Stiles. “Although now that we know an Incubus...”

Stiles and Jackson looked at each other in shock.

“Hell no!” Stiles said at the same time that Jackson yelped,

“No fucking way!”

Lydia shrugged as if to say that it didn’t matter to her but there was a light in her eye which gave Stiles the feeling she wasn’t going to let this drop any time soon.

“Would you look at that, it’s my turn!” Stiles announced a little too loudly and jumped up to put as much distance between himself and Lydia as possible.

It was too late though, the damage had been done. The naughty little seed she’d planted wouldn’t leave his head. Not the Jackson part; Stiles did have standards, thank you very much. But the other bit, the part about Lydia, the woman he’d had the hots for almost all his life, watching him in that sort of situation. Stiles wasn’t sure if she’d unwittingly unearthed some kink he was unaware that he had or if it was yet another Incubus thing; either way the images which flashed through his mind, when he should have been paying attention to the game, as well as the contemplative looks she kept shooting him were ramping up his hunger.

It was only when he accidentally bumped into a woman on the way back from the bathroom that Stiles realised he was in trouble. He automatically reached out his hand to steady her and almost gasped at the feel of her warm skin against his own. The woman smiled at him flirtatiously and rested her hand against his chest as she thanked him, which meant that his mojo, as Kate had called it, was in full effect again and Stiles really had to fight hard to stop himself from dragging the woman away somewhere more private.

Instead he forced himself to step away, apologised for not looking where he was going and then hightailed it back to the group; his heart pounding wildly as he realised what he’d almost done. Stiles cast an eye around the rest of the bowling alley and took note of just how many people there were gazing back at him. If any one of them decided to get bold and approach him, he wasn’t sure he could back off again.

Scott came and stood next to him, also looking around the alley. “It’s happening again, isn’t it?”

“I think so.” Stiles nodded.

"Wanna get out of here?" Scott asked.

Stiles sighed. "Yeah, I better had."

It seemed that the others had also picked up on the fact that at least a third of the bowling alley patrons were by now staring at Stiles as if they were starving and he was a juicy steak. They were already collecting their belongings to leave as well.

"I hate to say it but I'm kind of impressed, Stilinski," Jackson said as they made their way outside with Stiles carefully making sure that he didn't accidentally touch anyone. "I never realised that Incubi could cause mass delirium."

"You're just jealous that you don't have this effect on people," Stiles shot back.

Jackson snorted derisively. "Jealous of you? Never gonna happen."

As it had at the rave, the shock of the fresh air helped a little to ease the hunger Stiles was feeling and he sighed in relief then froze as Scott began to lead the way to his mom's car. Stiles had completely forgotten that he'd arrived at the bowling alley in Allison's car, planning on getting a ride home with Scott. He wasn't sure being in a confined space with a human was a good idea right then, even if Scott was that human in question.

He wasn't sure he could trust himself not to attack his best friend and that realisation was the probably the suckiest thing in the entire history of sucky things that sucked.

"I can drive you home," Danny said.

Stiles whipped around to look at him. "Was I thinking out loud or did you just totally Professor X me?"

"Neither." Danny shrugged. "Any idiot can see that a hungry Incubus and a human trapped in a car together isn't a good idea."

"We'll be fine," Scott said from where he'd stopped walking and turned around.

"Any idiot?" Stiles asked Danny who shook his head ruefully.

"Apparently not."

"He's right, Scott. Just to be on the safe side, you know?" Stiles shrugged helplessly at Scott.

His friend looked like he still wanted to protest because, apparently, in Scott's freaky mind being Stiles' claimed human meant that he got to be responsible for Stiles' well-being. In the end though, he nodded his understanding and left.

"Why do I feel like I just kicked a puppy?" Stiles asked no one in particular and followed Danny to his car.

The journey wasn't at all awkward because Danny was awesome like that and he had had some hilarious stories about Jackson. So Stiles was feeling a lot better by the time they pulled into his driveway.

"I like you, Stiles, but, new Fae makeover aside, you're not really my type," Danny suddenly said as Stiles was about to leave the car.

"Umm..." Stiles started, not really sure where that had come from, but Danny held up a hand to stop him.

"I just want to make it clear that I'm not hitting on you when I offer to have sex with you," Danny then said and Stiles choked on air.

"You're going to offer to have sex with me?" he managed to gasp out when the choking had finished.

"Yes." Danny nodded. "Look, you need to feed and soon if you really don't want to hurt people. And before you start with the guilt, it's not as though it'll be much of a hardship for me; I get hot Incubus sex out of it and you can feed without having to worry about killing your partner."

With some difficulty, Stiles swallowed the joke about 'hardship' because Danny was being a nice guy and was genuinely acting out of concern. "I appreciate the offer, Danny, really. I can't do it though. We don't know for sure that I won't hurt you and, to be honest, I like you too and don't want to ruin any maybe sort of friendship we might be building here...which sounds ridiculous and cheesy when I say it out loud but there you have it."

Danny was quiet for a moment then sighed and demanded that Stiles hand over his phone. "I'm programming my number in case you change your mind. If it gets too bad, you can call me at anytime. And, for the record, there's such a thing as 'friends with benefits', genius."

Three hours later and Stiles was seriously reconsidering his decision. His dad was away at some sort of law enforcement training conference so the house was too quiet with nothing to distract Stiles from the still growing itch under his skin. He tried watching a movie, reading one of Deaton’s books and playing a computer game to take his mind off it but everything served to remind him of sex, even if it actually had nothing to do it. Seriously, how was he finding anything sexy about battling reanimated skeletons?

He paused the game and tried to take care of the problem by shoving his jeans down to his thighs and wrapping his fingers around himself. But, just as everything he’d read so far had indicated, it only made things worse; an Incubus couldn’t feed off his own energy, he only grew hungrier. Finally, he pushed away from his desk with a frustrated whine and went to take a very cold shower.

Shivering and damp, he collapsed onto his bed and drummed his fingers on the bed covers, head turned towards his phone. Danny had said anytime and he knew what he was getting into but the idea of feeding off him, the thought that everyone was wrong and Stiles would be helpless to stop feeding until Danny was nothing but an empty husk, made his stomach clench unpleasantly. He wasn’t going to do call Danny but he had no idea what he was going to do instead...besides pour over every scrap of information he could find, desperately looking for a way to satiate his hunger without risk of injury to others.

He fell into an exhausted sleep, the hunger taking its toll on his body and the constant worrying doing the same to his mind, until some tapping roused him. Blinking blearily, he looked around his room trying to place it until he realised it was coming from his bedroom window. And that meant it could only be one person.

With a huge sigh, he dragged himself off the bed to let Derek in.

“I have a front door, you know?” Stiles pointed out but Derek didn’t answer.

Instead he studied Stiles with a frown. “You need to feed.”

Stiles snorted. “No shit, Sherlock.”He walked across his room and leaned against his desk with his arms crossed. “What creepy message has the Great and Powerful Ash asked you to deliver this time?”

Derek’s eyes narrowed at the slight against Peter. “He would like you to join him at a party tomorrow so that he can introduce you to some of the light Fae in the area.”

“Do I have to?” Stiles looked at Derek and wasn’t really surprised when Derek gave him a grim nod. “Fine.”

“Why haven’t you fed yet?” Derek demanded.

Stiles rolled his eyes; he was like a dog with a bone. A wolf with a bone? Did wolves even like bones?

“I haven’t found anyone who’s taken my fancy,” he told him flippantly.

Derek glowered, obviously not buying it. “Stilinski...”

“Stiles,” Stiles interrupted. “Stop calling me, Stilinski; it makes me feel like I’m still in school. And I’m working on it, okay? It isn’t exactly an easy adjustment for me. This time last week all I had to worry about was how bored I was going to get over the summer; now I have to worry about killing people!”

“If you feed on humans,” Derek agreed.

“But Fae are stronger, blah, blah, blah.” Stiles anticipated what Derek was about to say; the same thing everyone else had but... “I don’t know that it will work. Look, I’ve been reading through the lore and I haven’t been able to find anything about new Incubi, only ones who are already in control. And then I found this story about a Succubus back in olden times who killed a Merman with her powers, although that was the result of some centuries old blood feud and she blatantly did it on purpose and I know I’m not a Succubus but that’s only because I’m a guy, right? Because they’re the female version of Incubi...”

“Get to the point, Stilin...Stiles,” Derek sighed.

“Huh?” Stiles blinked; shocked that Derek had actually listened to him about the whole name thing. “Oh! Right! The point is that it’s apparently possible for me to hurt or kill a Fae on purpose by feeding on them so I don’t know if I’ll do it accidentally because I can’t control myself. I...I don’t want to hurt anyone; human or Fae.”

Derek stared at him and didn’t say anything; which was less than helpful. In fact the staring and silence went on so long that Stiles began to fidget.

“So, you’ve delivered the Ash’s invitation,” Stiles said. “And I’ve already said that I’ll be...”

He trailed off as Derek suddenly removed his ever present leather jacket, dropping it to the floor, and then pulled off his t-shirt.

"Whoa, whoa...what are you doing?" Stiles squeaked when Derek stalked closer to him. Because that was the only word for it; stalked. Graceful and dangerous as a predator.

"If you don't feed, you're going to become a danger to everyone in this town." Derek leaned close and Stiles could feel the other man's breath against his skin. He moved his hands to grip at the edge of the desk behind him, willing himself not to reach out and take what Derek was offering.

"I could hurt you," Stiles whispered, beginning to shake from the effort of holding himself back.

Derek smirked. "I seriously doubt that."

He put his hand on Stiles' hip, fingers slipping under the t-shirt to press against bare skin. Stiles shuddered and, before he was even aware of moving, he had his hands buried in Derek's hair, dragging him into a scorching kiss.

He wouldn't have expected Derek to be gentle, if he'd ever thought of something like this before, and he definitely wasn't but that just made Stiles hotter. As Derek bit at his lips and his fingers bruised his skin, Stiles moaned and pulled Derek closer. That electricity he'd felt before was rushing through him making his hips buck into Derek's to feel the answering hardness.

Stiles' head fell back with a groan and Derek growled, burying his face in Stiles' neck while at the same time lifting him until Stiles had no choice but to wrap his legs around Derek's waist. Stiles was so lost in the pleasurable sensations that he didn't even realise they were moving until his back hit his mattress. He opened his eyes in shock and looked up at Derek looming over him, a fine sheen of perspiration over some truly impressive abs that Stiles really wanted to lick. He pushed himself up onto one elbow and reached his hand out to touch but Derek caught hold of his wrist and shoved it away before he grabbed the hem of Stiles' t-shirt and tugged it off.

Stiles was pretty sure that he should be feeling some sort of insecurity, baring his scrawny body while being confronted by Derek's sculpted one, but he really didn't, not when Derek looked at him with such lust and approval. Instead he worked on stripping the rest of his clothes off while Derek did the same and, within seconds, they were back on each other, gasping and moaning.

Derek propped himself up, his forearms either side of Stiles' head as he rocked against him, his eyes flashing from gold to green and then back again. Stiles' hands dug into Derek's shoulders while his legs were back around his waist, matching Derek thrust for thrust and cursing up a storm. His hunger was building along with the pleasure; the two sensations twining and twisting together until Stiles' couldn't tell which was which, all he knew was that he needed...something.

He arched up. "Derek...fuck, please...please, oh god..."

With another growl rumbling through his chest, Derek rolled them so that Stiles was on top. "Do it!"

Stiles immediately fell forward and kissed Derek with everything he had. When he heard Derek gasp, he opened his eyes and could see the blue glow of energy flowing from Derek into him, could taste it like lightening against his tongue. Derek's gasps became moans became a roar, vibrating through Stiles as Derek jerked beneath him, spilling hot and wet. That was all that was needed to trigger Stiles' own orgasm and he shuddered, crying out before collapsing on top of Derek, panting against his neck as he struggled to catch his breath.

"...holy...shit..."

"...yeah..." Derek replied, his own chest heaving.

Stiles stayed where he was, too boneless to move and he figured that Derek would tell him if he was too heavy. Then his head suddenly shot up. "Oh fuck, are you okay? Did I take too much?"

"I'm fine," Derek mumbled. "Just...tired, that's all."

"Okay, good. That's good." Stiles breathed a sigh of relief and dropped his head back to the comfortable spot on Derek's shoulder that he'd found. "You can crash here if you want. My dad's not here so no one around to ask awkward questions. You know...because you probably shouldn't be driving until you get your strength back."
Stiles felt a vibration in Derek's body underneath him that might have been a chuckle, but this was Derek so probably not.

"Don't think I'm capable of moving anyway," Derek said his voice all low and rough and Stiles felt a surge of pride because he'd been the one to make him sound like that.

Stiles tapped his fingers absentmindedly against Derek's chest in time with Derek's heartbeat. "So, that was...I mean, I don't have much experience which you know because you were there for that embarrassing announcement but...that was pretty wow, right?"

Derek sighed. "Stiles, can't you just shut up and enjoy the afterglow?"

"Dude, have you met me?" Stiles laughed. “Scott once had an entire conversation with me about monkeys before he realised I was actually talking in my sleep.”

“Monkeys?”

“What?” Stiles asked. “I have awesome dreams.”

With a huff, Derek pushed Stiles off him, ignoring the noises of protest, and wiped them both down with the damp towel Stiles had dumped on the floor after his shower. Then he manhandled Stiles onto his side and pulled the covers over them.

“Go to sleep,” he said into Stiles’ shoulder as he pressed up behind him and dropped a heavy arm over his waist.

“Derek...” Stiles began but Derek cut him off.

“It was wow, now go to sleep.”

Stiles tried, he really did...for about five minutes but this was a big deal. He’d just lost his virginity, to Derek Hale of all people, and it had been good, he’d been good at it. Plus he’d fed; he done it without hurting Derek which was definitely a plus but at that moment his mind was focusing on the actual feeding part. He couldn’t really remember what had happened at the rave, it was all a blur of sensation followed by craziness, but this time he could remember it. He remembered making the conscious decision to feed from Derek, grasping his face and leaning over him to take that last kiss, to take that energy. It made this whole Fae thing real to him in a way that nothing else had.

He was Fae; he was an Incubus who had to feed from other people. This was his life now.

“Derek, can I ask you something?” Stiles knew that Derek was still awake but he kept his voice low anyway.

“No,” Derek replied.

“Come on, this is a serious question. No babbling, I promise,” Stiles cajoled.

There was a rush of breath against the back of his neck then Derek said, “Fine.”

“Okay, I get that the Incubus thing came from my...from the paternal side of things,” Stiles said, still unwilling to use the word ‘father’ in conjunction to anyone who wasn’t his dad. “But could I have got certain things from my mom too?”

“It’s not unheard of,” Derek replied after a moment’s thought. “There have been Fae who’ve received gifts from both parents but it’s not very common; no one I've ever met. Why are you asking?”

“Deaton’s books say that an Incubus can seduce someone by touch but I’ve been attracting people who aren’t even standing near me,” Stiles explained. “You saw it at the rave, right? People suddenly eyeing me up and I hadn’t touched any of them. It happened again in the bowling alley earlier tonight. According to what I’ve read, a Selkie can seduce people in the immediate vicinity without touching them. Which kind of messes with my head when I think about how my mom and dad actually met but I’m going with the ‘burying my head in the sand’ technique with that one. So what do you think; am I right about inheriting that from my mom?”

“It makes sense,” Derek admitted. “A Selkie's seductive powers only work on humans and, from what I recall, it was only humans looking at you that night. You should probably check with Deaton if you want to know more, he'd have better answers for you; all my family have been Wolf Shifters as far back as we can trace so I don’t know as much about other types of Fae."

Stiles nodded then snuggled closer to Derek and the amazing heat he was giving off; it must've been a wolf thing and Stiles was counting it as a definite advantage in a bed partner. The initial high was wearing off and exhaustion was finally beginning to overcome his ever whirring mind.

"Thanks, Derek," he muttered just before he fell asleep and smiled when Derek tightened his hold in reply.

When Stiles awoke, the sunlight streaming into the room indicated that it was late morning. Derek was gone but he’d left a note on the bedside table:

Mansion. 8pm. Don't be late.

Stiles chuckled; Derek was such a romantic soul.

Feeling refreshed and much better than he had since the night of the rave, Stiles drove to Scott's house to hang out and make up for the night before.

"So what you're telling me is that you turned down Danny and then slept with Derek Hale?" Scott was so incredulous that he actually stopped playing the game so that he could stare at Stiles and didn’t even notice when his character blew up on the screen in front of them.

"It's not like it was a conscious decision," Stiles protested. "I didn't know Derek was going to show up and do a striptease in my bedroom."

Scott didn't stop staring. "But...Derek Hale!"

"He's not that bad." Stiles shrugged.

"You're just saying that because he sexed you up," Scott accused.

"It's not that," Stiles told him then paused for a moment. "Well, it's not only that. It's just that sometimes it seems like there's a nice guy under all that glowering. You know, buried really deep...it is mainly the sex thing though because that was awesome."

Scott winced at that bit but manfully kept going in order to keep up his role of supportive best friend. "And the actual...um...feeding bit. It went okay? Because you're looking a lot better than you did at the Bowling Alley."

Stiles nodded. "I'm definitely nowhere near being able to feed off a human but, at least, we know now that I won't take it too far with a Fae...unless I want to, I guess."

"Good," Scott looked relieved. "I was worried about you, man."

Stiles clutched a hand to his chest. "You do love me, Scott McCall."

"Shut up, asshole!" Scott threw a pillow at his head which Stiles caught and threw back.

From there things quickly descended into a pillow fight, then a wrestling match, then a lecture from Scott's mom after she'd stared at the broken vase in her living room and begged Scott to tell her what it was she'd done so wrong that he kept inflicting Stiles on her. Stiles grinned; it was almost as if the past week had never happened.

At ten to eight that evening Stiles drove his jeep through the Hale Mansion gates in time to see Lydia and Danny climbing out of Lydia's BMW. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw them; having resigned himself to a boring evening surrounded by people he didn't know - apart from one guy who he now knew biblically but would probably just growl at him all night. He beeped his horn to get their attention and then pulled into the adjacent space.

"Hey, it's the guest of honour," Danny smiled when he joined them.

"What?" Stiles asked. "Oh, please don't tell me this entire thing is for..."

"You totally got laid!"

Stiles stopped talking and stared at Lydia in horror.

"Oh my god, you did!" Danny exclaimed. Stiles turned guilty eyes on him, worried that Danny would be upset that he found a partner so soon after his offer but Danny just slapped him on the back. "Good for you. And was it? Good for you?"

Stiles grinned at Danny's waggling eyebrows. "A gentleman never tells."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Being a friend tops being a gentleman so spill."

"We're friends now?" Stiles asked her. "I thought I was just your Fae dress-up doll."

"And possible sandwich filling for her and Jackson," Danny added because he wasn't a nice guy after all; he was evil, definitely evil.

"If I admit that you aren't entirely the waste of space I thought you were, will you tell us all the juicy details?" Lydia asked; which was practically a declaration of adoration from her.

"Maybe later," he hedged, feeling uncomfortable gossiping about Derek in his own home.

"I'm holding you to that," Lydia told him. Then she linked arms with both Stiles and Danny and held her head high. "Let's make an entrance, boys."

Stiles couldn't help but laugh and together the three of them walked through the mansion towards the hall he'd been in previously. There were quite a few people already gathered there and Lydia was in her element as all conversation stopped for a moment when the trio entered the room.

"I take it back," she said to Stiles under her breath as she preened under everyone's stares, "definitely not a waste of space. I'm hanging on to you, bff."

Danny snorted from the other side of her. "Welcome to the Wonderful World of being Queen Lydia's accessory. I've been stuck here for years."

Lydia blew Danny a kiss. "You love it!"

“Mr Stilinski, I’m glad that you could make it.” Stiles looked up as Peter approached. “Lydia, Daniel.” Peter nodded.

Lydia and Danny both bowed their heads respectfully although Stiles could see a brief flash of distaste in Lydia’s eyes as she looked at Peter and the amusement which passed across Peter’s face at the sight. There was obviously no love lost there but Stiles wasn’t sure if there was a story behind that or just Lydia’s natural bristling at his authority over her. He wondered for a moment why Peter addressed him more formally than he did the others before realising that it was because Stiles hadn’t pledged his fealty to the Ash; technically Peter was not his superior.

Peter studied Stiles carefully for a moment and then indicated that Stiles walk further into the hall with him.

“You’re looking very well,” Peter told him, leaving no doubt that he was referring to the fact that Stiles had obviously fed recently. “And you’ve been making some new friends; although I was hoping that you would set your sights a little higher in your choice of bed partner.”

Stiles blinked in confusion at the slight against his own nephew before he caught Peter’s glance back over his shoulder and understood; Peter had assumed that Stiles had fed from Danny or Lydia...or both. He didn’t know about Derek.

“Anyway...”Peter continued, not giving Stiles a chance to reply; the guy seriously loved the sound of his own voice. “I wanted to introduce you to a few people; give you more of an idea of what the light Fae are all about.”

Stiles perked up at that because he still couldn’t for the life of him figure out the difference. Both sides looked down on humans, for the most part, and had no problem using them as a food source. Both sides had an aversion to giving straight answers. Both sides had creepy ass leaders.

Peter led him around the room, introducing him, and Stiles pasted a polite smile on his face and made small talk. It took more work than he’d expected, especially when the person he was talking to eyed him with speculation or smugly informed him that they had known all along that the Sheriff couldn’t be his real father. Peter tended to cut short the latter conversations and move Stiles along to the next person; Stiles figured this was more to do with him not wanting Stiles to cause a scene than out of respect to Stiles’ opinion on that particular matter.

Danny and Lydia helped by doing mimes behind people’s backs; Stiles didn’t understand half of what they were trying to say but it was entertaining nonetheless. He finally escaped Peter’s clutches after about an hour and fell into a seat next to his friends.

“Please tell me that I don’t have to go through all of this with the dark Fae too.” He dropped his head onto the table with a thunk.

“Maybe,” Danny said, “although the Morrigan seems to be more of a one on one person. Not like that!” He added when Stiles lifted his head to stare at him in horror, then his face turned thoughtful. "Actually, probably like that."

"You are her type," Lydia interjected. "Young and cute but especially young; I think that's why she chose to live in this town so she could seduce the new Fae men when they come of age."

"Ughh, that's just beyond creep...wait, you think I'm cute?" He looked at Lydia hopefully.

After spending some time with them Stiles had stopped deluding himself that he had a chance with her while Jackson was in the picture, unless that chance included Jackson apparently, but it would still be nice to have some validation for his years of Lydia worship.

"I think you're adorable," she told him and patted his cheek...which wasn't really what he was looking for but he'd take what he could get.

He grinned and ignored the fact that Danny was shaking his head at him. "Hey, where did you get those drinks? I want one."

He looked around for a server or maybe a makeshift bar and, as he did so, he caught Derek's eye. Stiles hadn't even seen him arrive, in fact he'd been inwardly ranting about the fact that Derek had practically ordered Stiles to be there but hadn't bothered to show up himself. A memory of the night before flashed through his mind and Stiles couldn't help but smile at him and he got a slight twitch of the lips in return, which he was totally counting as a win.

"Why are you smiling at Derek Hale?" Lydia asked curiously and Stiles spun around to look at her.

"What? No, I'm not," he tried. "I was smiling about the 'me being adorable' thing that you said, you know that you said just then, and he just got in my eye line like a big eye line crasher."

Danny looked from Stiles to Derek, his eyes widening as realisation dawned. "Holy shit!"

"Seriously?" Lydia squealed, causing more than a few people to look over at them.

"Shut up!" Stiles hissed at the pair of them and looked back over at Derek who was now openly smirking at them having obviously heard everything with his stupid wolf hearing.

"Oh god!" Stiles dropped his head to the table again to hide how much he was blushing.

"I'm actually impressed," Lydia was saying, thankfully in a quieter voice.

"I know, right?" Danny agreed. "Way to knock it out the park your first time at bat, Stiles."

Stiles groaned. "You do know he can hear us, don't you?"

"Of course, and we're being very complimentary to him," Lydia answered.

"I hate my life," Stiles muttered.

"Just when it's getting interesting too," Danny said, sounding amused.

Later that evening, when they'd finally managed to escape the party, the three of them tucked into an out of the way booth at a local diner so that Stiles could give Lydia the juicy details he'd promised her.

"Okay, you're leaving out some salient points here," Lydia said when he'd finished. "Namely, is the whole Incubus feeding during sex thing really as hot as we've heard it is?"

Stiles remembered the way Derek had shuddered beneath him, how powerful Stiles had felt as he held Derek's face in his hands, and he flushed.

"I think we should take that as a definite yes," Danny said and Stiles glared at him but there wasn't much heat in it.

Lydia's eyes glazed over for a moment, obviously picturing it, before she shook her head and gave Stiles that same contemplative look she had at the Bowling Alley.

"Still not having sex with Jackson involved." Stiles pointed his spoon at her.

She hummed. "How about if we replaced him with Danny?"

Stiles choked on the mouthful of ice cream he'd just taken while Danny snickered into his coffee.

Lydia winked cheekily at Stiles and then looked up as a girl approached the table.

"This is probably going to sound a little strange," the girl began, never taking her eyes off Lydia and not even seeming to notice that the boys were there. "I'm an artist and you're just so..." The girl blushed and gave a self conscious giggle. "I was wondering if it would be okay if I painted you? That's really weird, right?"

"Not at all," Lydia gave the girl a smile and reached out to put a hand on her arm. Stiles blinked as he watched a soft golden glow move from Lydia's hand into the girl. "But are you sure that you can't think of anything else you'd prefer to paint?"

The girl frowned and looked off into the distance for a moment. "You know, I have always liked pocket watches."

"Well, there you go," Lydia said. "Why don't you give that a try?"

The girl nodded absently and then walked away without another word, completely lost in thought.

"Whoa..." Stiles breathed. "That's how your stuff works?"

Lydia sat back and nodded. "She won't even remember the conversation tomorrow. It's tragic really; I deserve to have my portrait painted far more than a boring old watch does."

“It’s a cruel and unusual punishment,” Danny said dryly.

Lydia ignored him and tilted her head at Stiles. “You can do it too though, can’t you?”

Stiles shifted awkwardly. “It’s more like; when I'm hungry my touch makes people want to get in my pants. It's a bit too date-rapey for me to be anywhere near comfortable with."

"What about if you're not hungry?" Lydia asked. "Have you tried it then? And does it work on Fae or just humans? You need to think about these things, Stiles."

"To be honest, up until last night I was still clinging on to the idea that this might all be some kind of big misunderstanding," Stiles admitted. "Or a ridiculously well organized prank."

"Understandable," Danny told him. "You've had a lot of stuff dumped on you in a really short time. You're coping pretty damn well, considering."

Stiles smiled at him in thanks then jumped when Lydia suddenly clapped her hands together.

"Excellent," she said with a smile. "In that case, Danny has just volunteered to be the first test subject."

Danny raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm pretty sure I didn't."

"It's perfect," Lydia argued. "You know as well as I do that he needs to figure this stuff out otherwise you wouldn't have made that offer last night. Plus Stiles is a nice guy, he won't take advantage of the situation and, even if he did for some reason, I'm here to stop him."

"You're here to encourage him, more like," Danny grumbled.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea." Stiles frowned but Lydia waved him off.

"It's a great idea," she insisted and glared at both of them until Danny sighed and placed his arm on the table so that it was in reach of Stiles.

Stiles looked from the bare arm to Danny's face. "You really don't have to do this."

"She's not wrong," Danny said ruefully. "Better to try it with us."

"Okay," Stiles nodded nervously.

Lydia leaned forward in excitement. "Just concentrate, Stiles. I always think about how I'm helping someone reach their potential so you should probably think about how much you want to...say, kiss Danny. Start off small."

Stiles took a deep breath and put his hand on Danny's arm. Nothing happened. He kept his hand there and closed his eyes, thinking of how good looking Danny was. He imagined soft lips moving beneath his and the scratch of stubble against his cheek. He opened his eyes again and looked at Danny hopefully.

Danny shook his head. "Should I be feeling offended?"

"No. You know you're hot, Danny, I just can't get it to work," Stiles rushed to assure him. "I guess it doesn't work on Fae."

"Try it again and say something to him this time," Lydia suggested, obviously unwilling to throw in the towel just yet. "I do; it helps to focus their mind on what they really should be thinking about."

"So, I'm just supposed to say; 'hey, Danny, wanna make out?' and he'll immediately..."Stiles broke off and stared at his hand wide-eyed when a golden pulse of energy left it, moved into Danny's arm and travelled along his vein a little way.

He looked up at Danny in time to see his eyes dilate before he scrambled around the table and climbed into Stiles' lap.

"Uh, Danny...?" was all Stiles managed to get out before Danny crushed their lips together, licking into Stiles' mouth and giving a low groan as if he couldn't get enough.

It felt really good and for a moment Stiles forgot that he wasn't supposed to be taking advantage, kissing back and losing himself to the taste of coffee and sugar and Danny.

The distinctive sound of a photo being taken reminded Stiles what it was they were supposed to be doing and he broke off the kiss. Danny made a little whine of protest and moved his attention to kissing Stiles' throat instead.

Stiles looked at the phone-wielding Lydia over Danny's shoulder. "Umm...so I guess that worked."

"You think?" She looked smug but also more than a little flushed. "Are you sure you don't want to rethink the whole threesome thing?"

Stiles bit his lip as Danny scraped his teeth across a particularly sensitive bit of skin below Stiles' ear and he suddenly got a very vivid picture of what it would be like to take both Danny and Lydia to bed.

He shook his head after a moment's pause. "Even if Danny was in his right mind, I'd rather not have my ass kicked by Jackson. Or have him spit venom at my face."

Lydia didn't even try to protest that that wouldn't happen; instead she shrugged and turned back to the subject in hand. "So, your power is far more to do with the verbal suggestion than mine is. I mean, you just threw that question out there; were you even concentrating on kissing Danny as you said it?"

Stiles was struggling with getting Danny to sit on the actual seat rather than on him so he took a minute or so to answer. "Not really. It was still in my head but I wasn't focussed on it because I was busy talking to you."

Lydia hummed to herself before pointed at Stiles. "Time for experiment number two."

"I'm still dealing with the results of experiment number one," Stiles reminded her.

Danny was at least staying on the bench but he'd wrapped an arm around Stiles waist and was busy sucking what was probably going to be the mother of all hickeys onto Stiles' neck.

Lydia shifted her gaze to Danny and smirked before she took another photo. "Oh, that's my new wallpaper," she laughed, looking at it. "Anyway, I'm not saying that you should get someone else to do that. I think we should see if you're able to suggest other things to them; like...get them to spill a secret or do the Macarena. Stuff like that."

Stiles snorted. "The Macarena? You truly are evil, you know tha..."

A hand suddenly smacked down heavily on the table and made Stiles and Lydia jump. Stiles looked at the waitress in shock.

"Here's your bill. Pay it and leave!" The woman looked in disgust at the way Danny was still nuzzling Stiles. "You're making the other customers uncomfortable."

"Are you kidding me, lady?" Lydia asked outraged while Stiles looked around the diner to confirm that it was entirely empty and had no other customers apart from them.

"I'm very serious," the waitress sneered at Lydia. "Pay up, leave and don't come back. You're not welcome here." Then she looked at Stiles. "You should be ashamed of yourself. I didn't expect this kind of filth from the Sheriff's son."

Stiles saw red and opened his mouth to tell her exactly what she could expect from him but Lydia kicked him under the table. Stiles looked at her but she was staring at his hand, then she met his eyes and raised an eyebrow at him meaningfully.

He thought about it for a second, the ramifications of jumping straight from using his whammy on a Fae to using it on a human and then mentally shrugged, figuring that the woman deserved it. With difficulty he pushed his anger to the back of his mind and placed his hand over the woman’s.

She moved to yank her hand away but, before she had the chance, Stiles said pleasantly, "You don't really want us to leave do you?"

The glow left his hand as it had before and the waitress blinked before smiling. "Of course not. I'd never make you leave."

Well that was easy but it wasn't enough. Stiles thought about the hatred which had twisted the woman’s face and smirked as a punishment occurred to him.

"You know, I just realised that I left my wallet at home. Would you mind paying our bill? I'd be very grateful." He stroked his finger in a circle over the back of her hand and smiled as she nodded at him.

"And give us a pie...three pies, on the house," Lydia interjected.

The woman frowned a little at Lydia but Stiles pulled her attention back to him.

"I do like pie," he told her and slowly licked his lips, ignoring Lydia's stifled laughter.

The waitress flushed. "You can have whatever you like; pie...me..."

"Maybe next time." Stiles winked. "We will be allowed back, right?"

There was no way Stiles was setting foot in that diner ever again but it was the principle of the thing.
Stiles used his free hand to prod Danny into standing up and followed him out of the booth, never letting go of the waitress' hand.

"You can come in here whenever you want to," the woman was gushing. "Please come back and see me."

Lydia skipped over to Stiles from the counter where she had been choosing pies and whispered something in his ear. Stiles laughed and nodded.

"I tell you what, I'll come back to visit you if you do one last thing for me," Stiles told the waitress who once again nodded eagerly. "Do the Macarena."

Stiles was still chuckling when he left his bedroom the next morning. As much at Danny's bewildered 'How did I get here? Why am I holding two pies?' which Stiles had heard floating from Lydia's car when Stiles climbed into his jeep, as at the memory of that waitress dancing.

"You seem very chipper this morning."

Stiles' smile grew as he saw his dad standing in the kitchen doorway holding a cup of coffee.

"Hey, when did you get home?" he walked closer to give his dad a hug.

"About an hour ago," his dad replied. "Didn't want to wake you."

Stiles plucked the mug out of his dad's hand, took a sip then gave his dad a pointed look. "You mean you wanted to sneak in a full caff coffee before I woke up. I'll be keeping this, thank you."

He headed to the cupboard and took out the tin of decaf to make a fresh pot.

"Pretty sure I'm supposed to make the rules in this house," his dad grumbled as he followed. "So, is this the reason for your good mood?" He flicked at Stiles neck, right where Stiles knew his hickey from Danny was.
Stiles cringed. "Umm..."

"So, who is she?" His dad smirked at Stiles' discomfort, probably in revenge for his stolen coffee. "Is it serious? Do we need to invite her over for dinner?"

"Umm..." Stiles said again. "It was a he, actually, and definitely nothing serious. No dinner necessary, really."

His dad raised an eyebrow. "He, huh? It’s not Scott, right?”

Stiles knew that his dad wouldn’t have a problem with the guy thing; the man was a cop and a very good one, he’d figured out Stiles was bi probably before Stiles himself knew. Most likely something to do with the way Stiles had gone just as googly eyed over Angel as he had over Cordelia during his ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ obsession.

Huh, apparently Stiles had a type. Actually it seemed that he had types.

Looking at the expression of mock horror on his dad’s face, Stiles burst out laughing. “It wasn’t Scott. Oh my god!”

“Don’t get me wrong, I like the kid but son in law material he is not,” Stiles’ dad chuckled.

“I’ll be sure to tell him that, later,” Stiles told him, “I’m going around to his after I’ve done the grocery shopping.”

“What? We’re not having pie for dinner?” His dad looked over at the counter where the pilfered cherry pie was sitting and Stiles started laughing all over again.

Later that day, Stiles was drumming the steering wheel and singing along with the stereo as he drove over to Scott’s house when he noticed that he was being tailed by a black SUV. Frowning to himself he made sure to pull over a few houses down from Scott’s in case there was some kind of trouble and exited the jeep to see Allison’s dad climbing out of the SUV.

“Stiles, nice to see you again,” he said, smiling in a way which kind of gave Stiles the creeps.

“Mr Argent,” Stiles nodded at him. “Did you need something?”

“Please, call me Chris and, actually, my sister would like to see you,” Allison’s dad replied genially. “Just to check in and see how you’re dealing with everything; nothing for you to worry about.”

“Okay.” Stiles had been expecting to have to meet with Kate again. “I can do that. When shall I..?”

“No time like the present.” Chris waved his hand towards the passenger side. “Shall we?”

Stiles eyed the vehicle, imagined how uncomfortable that journey would be and shook his head. “I actually have a few errands to run later on so it’ll probably be best if I just followed you.”

Chris shrugged and climbed back into the SUV, waiting for Stiles to start the jeep before leading the way to his house.

“Allison’s around somewhere, I’m sure she’ll want to see you before you leave,” he told Stiles as they walked through the front door.

Stiles nodded and looked around them curiously. He hadn’t realised that Kate actually lived with Allison and her parents but he guessed it made sense considering how big the house was; far too big for just three people.

They reached an open area with some arm chairs. Chris motioned for Stiles to take a seat while he went through a nearby door for a moment.

“Kate’s just finishing up with someone else,” Chris said as he came back out into the sitting area. “She’ll be with you in a few minutes. Can I get you a soda while you wait?”

“Umm...no, thank you. I’m fine.” Stiles was feeling very out of his element and it would be just his luck if he tipped a drink over the very expensive looking furniture.

Chris nodded, gave him another one of those creepy smiles and left.

Ten minutes later and Stiles was still waiting for Kate to show up. He wasn’t good at being patient, never had been. His foot tapped against the floor, his fingers drummed on his thigh and finally he stood up to go and look at one of the paintings hanging on the wall for something to do.

It was only when the soft sound of someone arguing reached him that he realised he was standing right next to, what he guessed was, Kate’s office door...and that Chris hadn’t closed it properly when he left. Stiles tilted his head a little and found he could look inside.

Kate was sitting with her back to the door in a seat facing a man Stiles didn’t know. The man was frowning and, from his agitated hand movements, he was obviously protesting something Kate had just told him. Kate reached out and caught one of the man’s hands in her own, rubbed her fingers against his soothingly and Stiles blinked as he saw a familiar golden glow. Instantly the man’s face smoothed out and his eyes looked a little vacant as he listened to what Kate was saying before nodding at her.

That appeared to be the end of the meeting as Kate suddenly stood up. Stiles immediately hurried back over to his seat so as not to be caught spying and pasted his most innocent expression on his face as Kate opened the office door and spotted him.

“Stiles.” She smiled as if genuinely pleased to see him. “Come on in. Tom, you know the way out.”

The Tom guy nodded, still looking a little dazed, and brushed past Stiles as he left. In the office, Kate took a seat, on the opposite side of her desk this time, while Stiles settled into the one Tom had just vacated.

“So, I hear you’ve been throwing yourself into the Fae way of life with gusto,” Kate started. “Even got yourself a human pet; not that I can blame you, he is a pretty one.”

“What?” Stiles’ eyes widened at the insinuation in her tone. “No! Scott’s just...he’s my friend, completely platonic.”

Why did everyone think he was going to sleep with Scott? Even Scott!

Kate frowned a little. “That seems like a bit of a waste. Why bother?”

Stiles refrained from rolling his eyes at the Fae attitude to humans. “He saw what happened at the rave and I was led to believe that he would be in danger because of that unless I claimed him.”

“You care about what happens to him.”

It wasn’t really a question but Stiles answered anyway. “Of course, I do. He’s my best friend.”

Kate nodded thoughtfully then gave an elegant shrug and moved on. “How was the Ash’s party last night? As boring and stuffy as they always are?”

Stiles had to smile at that accurate description. “It wasn’t really the type of party I’d usually go to. Not that I ever get invited to many; I wasn’t really in that crowd at school.”

“Their loss,” Kate said, raking her eyes over him. “Sometimes I wonder what’s wrong with kids today; I’d have snapped you up in an instant. Who could turn down those gorgeous eyes of yours?”

Stiles flushed and Kate gave a delighted giggle. “You are too adorable; it’s a shame we have to talk business right now.”

“Business?” Stiles asked.

“I’m worried that you aren’t giving enough consideration to the dark Fae as your choice of clan,” She did that leaning forward to show off her assets move again and Stiles had a brief struggle to keep his eyes on her face. “Obviously, I’m biased but we could offer you a lot, Stiles. I heard about the fun you had at the diner last night and that was dark Fae through and through.”

“How did you..?” Stiles began and then the light bulb went off. “Lydia told Allison.”

“And sent her some very interesting photos.” Kate smirked.

“Oh god!” Stiles put his head in his hands; he’d forgotten about the photos.

Kate laughed. “Trust me, pretty eyes; you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. But that stunt with the waitress would’ve got you in trouble if you were aligned with the light.”

“She deserved it!” Stiles lifted his head and stared at her defiantly.

“I agree,” Kate told him. “But you used your powers to humiliate a human for your own personal amusement. That’s a no no as far as the Ash would be concerned.”

Stiles tilted his head and looked at her interestedly. “That’s what the difference is?”

“Still trying to work that out, huh?” Kate gave him a wry smile. “Okay, the arguments, and sometimes all out battles, between the two sides goes back hundreds of years. The differences are many and varied; seriously there are thousands of books filled with this crap.”

“Crap which I should’ve learned growing up,” Stiles pointed out and Kate chuckled.

“I think, personally, think you got lucky. I cannot tell you how many lectures me and Chris had to put up with from our father. ‘You can never underestimate the importance of our history’,” she said in a gruff voice that Stiles guessed was an imitation of her dad. “And now Chris does the exact same thing with poor Allison unless I help her escape it; I’m an awesome aunt.”

Stiles laughed at her cheeky wink.

“Anyway,” she continued. “I’m sure that the Ash will give you a lecture about how the light and dark are on the brink of war and that the slightest push from either side will bring the current peace crashing down. And that’s kind of true but it’s been true for centuries. We have it made right now so neither side actually wants a war...we just enjoy the bickering.”

“That’s a lot more information than anyone else has given me,” Stiles admitted. “So, thanks for that, seriously. It still doesn’t really help me though. I don’t have time to read all those books, even if I could get hold of them.”

“I don’t suppose that you’re just going to buy the ‘we’re more fun’ argument?” Kate asked and Stiles chuckled but shook his head. “Alright, how’s this? The light has a pretty rigid rule structure, whereas we...well, we do have rules but a whole lot less of them. We don’t care if you want to have some fun with your powers, as you did last night. We don’t care if you take advantage of your powers to get ahead in life and if you slip up when feeding on a human? As long as it’s not witnessed by any other humans not in the know, we’ll help you clean the mess up and let you go on your merry way. If you were with the light then there would probably be an inquiry or something equally ridiculous.”

Stiles tapped his fingers against the arm of the chair as he let that sink in; he wasn’t sure it was great sell that Kate obviously thought it was. While he was thinking, Kate took the opportunity to walk around the desk and sit in the seat next to him, just as she had with Tom. It put Stiles on immediate alert but he was careful not to let it show.

"The point, Stiles, is that the dark Fae could be useful to you and you could be very useful to us." Kate gave him a seductive smile and reached out to put her hand on his arm.

Immediately, Stiles jumped to his feet, knocking over the chair in his haste. Kate blinked at him in confusion for a moment and then gave him that smile again.

"You're shy. That is just too cute, sweetie," she cooed at him, thankfully misunderstanding the reason for his sudden panic. She stood too and slunk closer to him. "I can be gentle, if that's what you want."

Stiles made an actual 'eep' noise and stumbled back further. Somehow he now had to worry about her pouncing and ripping his pants off, if that look in her eye were any indication, as well as about getting the whammy put on him. They'd been having a perfectly decent discussion; how had this got so far out of control?

"I appreciate the offer but...but...you're the Morrigan!" He grasped onto that excuse. "And I'm just, you know, a dorky kid. One who apparently needs sex to live, yes, but still wouldn't you prefer someone more...experienced?"

"Actually I prefer the innocent ones, like you; so eager to please. Believe me, I make a great teacher," Kate purred, still advancing on him while he backed up. "Think of all the things you could learn from me."

"Another time, maybe," Stiles said in an increasing high pitched voice. "Because I have errands to run, just ask your brother; I told him all about them. And he said that Allison wanted to see me before I left so I should go and do that now or I won't have time and that will be really rude."

He felt his back hit the door and grasped behind him blindly for the door handle, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief when he managed to get the door open.

"It was great seeing you. We'll have to do this again sometime." He backed out of the room and then practically ran past the seating area, looking back over his shoulder once to see Kate watching him with a very amused look on her face.

When he was finally out of sight, he stopped and slumped against a wall in relief. He closed his eyes and just breathed for a moment.

"I take it your meeting is over."

"Holy mother of...Allison..." Stiles only just managed to stop himself from cursing at the woman suddenly standing in front of him. "Allison's mother. Her holy mother...or not. Mrs Argent. Umm...how are you?"

Allison's mom narrowed her eyes at him as if he was a particularly nasty bug that she was just itching to squish. Seriously, what was it with the women in this family? And the men, now that he thought of it; Chris wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy.

"Allison's waiting for you in the kitchen," she said. "Follow me and don't touch anything."

"Yes, ma'am," Stiles answered meekly and trailed along behind her.

"Stiles!" Allison grinned when she spotted him and walked across the room to give him a quick hug. "Do you have plans for this afternoon? Kate wants you to hang out with some dark Fae after you went to that party last night and I figured that I would do."

"Nobody better," Stiles assured her with a smile. "But I had arranged to go and see Scott. I mean, you're welcome to tag along..."

"Scott?" Allison's mom made a face. "The human?"

"Mom, we've talked about this," Allison said to her with an angry look. "You send me to a school with humans then I'm going to make friends with some of them. That was the whole point, right? Blending in?"

Her mother raised an eyebrow in return; a scary, scary eyebrow. "As long as it's just 'friends'. It's bad enough that you still spend so much time with Lydia since she chose the light. I'll only take so much of this little teenage rebellion of yours."

Allison huffed and grabbed Stiles' arm before dragging him back through the house and out to where his jeep was parked.

The first few minutes of the journey passed in silence with Allison glaring out the window but Stiles was even worse with staying quiet as he was with being patient.

"Your parents not a fan of Scott then?"

Allison gave a humourless laugh. "One of Kate's men saw me dancing with him at the rave and reported back to my dad. Ever since then I've been getting lectures on why Fae/human relationships are wrong. It's been a nightmare."

"It didn't work out so badly for my parents, they were really happy," Stiles pointed out. "Not that my dad actually knew about her being a Fae but still..."

"That's different," Allison said. "Your mom gave up being a Fae to be with him, I can't exactly..."

She was cut off when Stiles suddenly hit the brakes and turned to stare at her.

"What did you just say?" he asked.

Allison's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my god! You didn't know? She's like a legend around here. The Fae who gave it all up because she fell in love with a lowly human. I've always thought it was so romantic...although not many others saw it that way, definitely not my parents."

"She just gave it up for my dad? How?"

His mind was reeling, he'd done so many 180s concerning his mom over the past few days that he felt like he should have whiplash. He'd been mad at her for not telling him and then came to understand her reasons. He'd wondered if she'd used her seductive powers on his dad in order to get herself a father for her unborn child but then he remembered how outspoken and independent she'd been and realised she would never have done that; she'd have been a single parent and proud of it. He'd worried about the fact that his dad had never known she was Fae, that their entire relationship had been based on lies but if she'd given it all up...

"It’s because she was a Selkie," Allison told him. "They're one of the only Fae who can do it because of their pelts; it's like a physical manifestation of their powers."

Stiles nodded; he'd looked up as much stuff on Selkies as he had Incubi. They could only transform into a seal if they carried their pelt into the water with them.

"She gave away her pelt," Allison said. "Gave it to the Ash and stayed human."

"Holy shit!" Stiles breathed.

Allison patted his arm. "Can you imagine what that took? You should be so proud of her."

Stiles gave her a slightly watery smile. "Yeah."

He took a couple of moments to compose himself, with Allison looking back out of the window to give him some space, and then he started the jeep again.

"Talking of powers," he said as they got going. "What type of Fae is your aunt?"

"She's a Valkyrie," Allison replied. "A Fae warrior."

"Like you?" Stiles frowned. "I thought you were called Fairy Queens."

"No, it's different. I got the Fairy Queen gene from my mom." She put her hand out. "Don't even comment on my mom being a Fairy Queen." Stiles obligingly closed his mouth and she continued. "Valkyries are way more aggressive; they live for fighting. You should see her and my dad training, it's like they never have as much fun as they do when their swinging swords at each other's heads."

Stiles could well imagine. "So your dad's like the male version of a Valkyrie then."

Allison nodded. "He's an Aesir. It's quite rare, actually. The Valkyrie gene usually only passes from woman to woman. It's sort of like Jackson being a Mama Wata; those are usually women too."

"You did not just tell me that!" Stiles snorted as Allison giggled. "Jackson's got girl powers? I am so making fun of him next time I see him."

"Well if you're going to be doing that, you should know that Mama Wata actually means 'gorgeous woman'." Allison's eyes sparkled mischievously and Stiles roared with laughter the rest of the way to Scott's house.

When Stiles got home later that night, after dropping Allison back at her house, he was feeling pretty good. It had been a fun afternoon, watching Scott practically fall over every time Allison teased and flirted with him. Also for the amount of times Scott cornered him to thank Stiles for bringing Allison to his 'house, dude'; Stiles was going to be shamelessly milking that gratitude for months to come.

He wasn't feeling particularly sleepy so he browsed through Deaton's books again, pausing when he stumbled across a page on Valkyries. He read it, frowned and picked up another book to check what that one said about Valkyries. Two hours later and Stiles had read every bit of information on them that he could and not a single book mentioned that they could put the whammy on someone the way he'd seen Kate do to that guy. He fell asleep while he was still puzzling over it.

He was woken the next day by his dad flinging open his bedroom door and announcing that it was to be father/son bonding day which would start with pancakes if Stiles got his ass out of bed quickly enough. The speed with which Stiles appeared at the kitchen table, freshly showered and dressed, made his dad chuckle and shake his head.

“So, what are we doing today, father mine?” Stiles asked around a mouthful of delicious pancakes.

“The Diamond is having a classic movie week,” his dad replied. “Thought we could catch today’s showing.”

Stiles actually stopped eating at stared at his dad. “Seriously?”

The Diamond was a movie theatre a few towns over. It was a real old school theatre that still showed cartoons before the main feature and had an actual intermission, plus it sold the best popcorn in the world. Stiles and his dad used to go there on weekends when he was younger but then homework, lacrosse practise and his dad’s promotion to Sheriff had made the trips few and far between.

“You just graduated high school, son. I figure we should probably get a few last trips in before you get too old for them.” His dad shrugged faux nonchalantly.

The Stilinski's had never been ones to show emotion easily, preferring to snark and make jokes at each other’s expense. So Stiles put down his fork and gave his dad a stern look. “Dad, I will never be too old to let you buy me toffee crunch popcorn.”

Stiles' dad made a show of rolling his eyes but he relaxed and the uncomfortable moment passed, so Stiles was counting it as a win.

He was also counting the extra plate of curly fries when they stopped for food after the movie as another win. In fact the whole day counted; it had been far too long since they'd hung out like that. Sitting in one of those tacky family restaurants animatedly discussing the film they'd just watched, as if they hadn't seen 'Chinatown' dozens of times before, while Stiles half-heartedly smacked his dad's hand away from the treasured curly fries; it felt right, normal in a way he hadn't felt since the rave.

So of course it would lurch sideways at the first possible opportunity.

Stiles needed some extra ketchup and was wandering towards the back of the restaurant looking for the condiments station when he spotted a girl stealing some poor guy's wallet. She was leaning into the guy as he sat on a bar stool and, judging from the direction of the guy's eyes, was distracting him with her boobs while her hand stole into the jacket hanging off the back of the stool.

His first instinct was to tell his dad what he'd seen but when he glanced back at their table it was empty. Stiles spun around to see where he'd gone and finally managed to spot him through the window, talking angrily on his phone outside. Stiles sighed; he knew what that expression on his dad's face meant, he'd just been called into work and their day of fun was over.

He spent a moment to feel sorry for himself and then remembered why he was looking for his dad in the first place. He turned back around and saw that the pickpocket was heading straight towards him. She was keeping her head down, obviously trying to get out of there as quickly as she could before the wallet was missed. She happened to glance up though and stumbled to a halt, her eyes widening comically.

"Stiles?"

Stiles' mouth fell open. "Erica? What the hell?"

The Erica standing in front of him was definitely not the Erica he knew from school. That girl had been mousy and shy, invisible really, and even lower on the social ladder than Stiles and Scott. This Erica was someone nobody could ignore. Her scraped back ponytail and baggy, unfashionable clothes were gone as was the self conscious air around her. In their place was an outfit so tight it could have been sprayed on, a mass of blonde curls and possibly the brightest red lipstick Stiles had ever seen. She oozed sexuality or probably would have if she wasn't staring at him in something approaching horror.

Stiles jumped out of his stupor when a hand clasped his shoulder.

"Son, we have to leave," his dad told him. "There's been a car crash back in town and there was a drunk driver involved..."

He looked so genuinely sorry that Stiles didn't have it in him to moan about it. Instead he shrugged. "Forget it, dad. It's Beacon Hills."

His dad chuckled and cuffed the back of his head affectionately before looking between Stiles and Erica. Erica who was now looking really nervous and clutching her bag to her chest.

Oh right, the stolen wallet and a Sheriff.

Stiles waved his hand at her. "Dad, you remember Erica, right? She was in my class. We just bumped into each other."

Stiles' dad did an actual double take, apparently as thrown by Erica's new makeover as Stiles. He recovered well though and reached out to shake her hand. "Of course. How are you, Erica?"

"I'm good, thanks, sir," Erica replied giving him a confident smile that belied the nervousness from a moment ago.

"Why don't you stay, Stiles?" His dad said and Stiles looked at him in surprise. "Keep the jeep; I'll get one of the cruisers to pick me up. That way you can catch up with your friend; there's no need to ruin both of our evenings."

"Oh no, there's no need. I'm sure that Sti..." Erica started but Stiles talked right over her.

"That would be great. We've got so much to catch up on." Stiles gave a pointed look towards the bag she still held in a white knuckled grip and she swallowed hard.

Stiles grabbed her elbow and pulled her to the table he'd just vacated while his dad paid their bill and left with a final wave goodbye.

"Give me the wallet," Stiles hissed at her as she sat and cut her off when she opened her mouth. "I saw you take it, Erica. Give it to me."

She gave a heavy sigh and glared at him before reaching into her bag.

Taking the wallet from her, he whispered, "Stay here until I get back. You leave and I will tell my dad about the pick pocketing."

"Fine," she replied sullenly. "But I'm eating the rest of these curly fries."

Stiles rolled his eyes and walked back towards the rear of the restaurant. He made a big show of stopping and leaning down behind the guy's barstool before he tapped his shoulder and pretended that he'd found the wallet on the floor where it could have dropped out of the jacket. The guy was suitably thankful and shook Stiles' hand at least a dozen times before he could escape and return to Erica.

He looked at the empty plate where his fries had been and sighed. "Come on, we'll talk in the jeep."

"So, what's going on, Erica?" he asked her when they were situated in the front cab and staring out over the restaurant parking lot. “You’re stealing? Why?”

"It's complicated." She frowned. "Are you going to report me?"

"It's not really my dad's jurisdiction," Stiles pointed out.

Erica shook her head. "Not to your dad. Are you going to report me to the Ash?"

For the second time in the past hour, Stiles found himself gaping at her. "You are fucking kidding me? You're Fae? Wait, how do you know that I'm Fae?"

She smirked at him. "Stiles Stilinski finally shows his powers and he's an Incubus to boot? That kind of news travels fast."

Stiles groaned at that and then looked at her curiously. "Why didn't I know about you? I mean, I would've thought that Allison or Danny would have said something."

Erica made a face. "I'm not exactly in with that crowd, remember? And I skipped town after graduation so I guess they probably just forgot about me; everyone else did."

"But why..?"

Erica huffed and apparently decided to head him off at the pass. "My mom wouldn't let me mix with the other Fae...or humans for that matter. She thought they would corrupt me, thought she could make me be a Land Wight like her by force of will alone. It was obvious that I inherited my father's powers as soon as the fits started but she wouldn't believe it."

"The epilepsy was caused by your powers?" Stiles remembered a couple of fits Erica had during high school, it was another reason that the other kids stayed away from her; it made them uncomfortable.

"It wasn't epilepsy. I'm a Maenad, we go into a kind of a frenzy around too much sexual energy and I hadn't learned to channel it yet." She sighed. "God, school was such a nightmare! All those hormones flying... it's probably a good thing I wasn't allowed near other people, it was bad enough when I kept myself to myself."

Stiles twisted in his seat so that he could face her. "You feed off sexual energy too?"

She laughed and leaned over to pat his face. "Nope, that's just you, lover boy. I see it and feel it and I can control it but it sort of controls me too, hence the fits." At Stiles' confused expression she bit her lip and tilted her head in thought. "I could go to a party and take all that energy, all that flirting and general horniness and direct it into something else, like an energy blast if I ever needed a weapon. Or I could turn it back onto the partiers and create an orgy."

She gave Stiles a wicked grin and Stiles spluttered, feeling his face heat up. He decided it would probably be best if he steered the subject away from that idea.

"Why skip town?" He waved a hand to encompass the area they were sitting in. "You don't seem to have made it very far."

"We don't all have a daddy nice enough to buy them a car," Erica snapped, tapping her hand on the dashboard for emphasis and Stiles winced. "When my mom couldn't pretend not see what I am anymore, she kicked me out. She let me stay long enough to choose my alliance and graduate then packed my bags for me."

"What?" Stiles was aghast. How could someone do that to their own child? "Shit! That's why you're stealing? She didn't even give you any money?"

Erica didn't answer but she slumped further down in her seat, sort of hunched in on herself, and that was answer enough. Stiles had to clench his fists until the urge to hit something passed; he was furious, he was beyond furious at how broken she looked. He wanted to hunt Erica's mother down and teach her a few lessons on how to be a decent human being even if she was a Land Wight, whatever the hell that was.

He concentrated on his breathing until he calmed down then asked, "Where have you been staying?"

Erica shrugged. "There's a Fae in town, he's been letting me crash on his couch. It's not so bad."

"No, you're coming home with me," Stiles told her.

"I can look after myself, Stiles!" Her eyes flashed angrily. "I don't need your goddamn pity."

Stiles scrubbed his hands over his face in frustration. "It's not pity. I just want to help, you don't deserve this."

She crossed her arms. "Why do you even care? You never did before; you ignored me just like the rest of them."

He couldn't argue against that; he had. Too wrapped up in his own teenage problems and his epic bromance with Scott to bother with the weird girl huddled by herself in the corner of the classroom.

"I was wrong," he said quietly.

Erica laughed humourlessly. "Because you didn't know that I was hot underneath all that? It's strange that you only want to help me when I've started dressing this way."

"For fuck's sake, Erica!" He exploded and she blinked at him in shock. "I don't give a shit how you dress; you could wear a bear costume for all I care! You're in trouble and I want to help you. And, you're right, I should have done it a long time ago but I didn't so let me do it now!"

There was silence in the jeep until Erica finally said, "You don't like how I dress?"

Stiles gave her an incredulous look and then noticed the touch of mischief dancing in her eyes and burst out laughing. "Jesus!"

"A bear costume? Really?" Erica giggled. "That's the best you could come up with?"

"I was working under pressure," Stiles informed her archly and then gave her a small smile. "Seriously, come with me. We've got a guest room and everything; that's got to be better than a couch."

Erica looked down, for a moment, at her hands twisting around each other in her lap and then gave a small nod.

Stiles reached across and snagged one of her hands, tangling it with his own instead. "This will be awesome, you'll see. We can stay up late, braiding each other's hair, giggling about Ryan Gosling..."

"You're a moron," she told him, rolling her eyes, but her hand tightened around his anyway.

"Yeah, you're right. Tom Hardy is way hotter." Stiles grinned when her eyes immediately brightened.

"Oh my god, his shoulders. Did you see 'Warrior'?"

He started the jeep and winked at her. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

When he saw the place she'd been crashing and the skeevy looking Fae who owned it, Stiles was even more sure that he'd made the right decision. She didn't have many belonging so it didn't take much to move her out of there and into the guest room at his house.

He waited until she was taking a shower to sneak downstairs and call his dad. He quickly outlined the situation, leaving out the Fae stuff and the pick pocketing and, as Stiles knew he would, his dad agreed that she should stay with them.

"For a few days, Stiles," he said. "I want to talk to her and find out more about all of this before we decide on anything longer than that."

"That works for me," Stiles agreed, confident that his dad was too much of a soft touch to turn Erica away after hearing the story from her own mouth.

"And you will be sleeping in separate rooms," his dad added.

"Dad," Stiles whined. "It's not like that."

He got a 'hmm' in return before someone called his dad's name in the background and he had to go.

"What did your dad say?" Erica asked when he went back upstairs.

She was sitting cross legged on Stiles' bed in pyjama pants and a strappy top. Her damp hair was piled on her head, her make-up was gone and she was looking softer and more vulnerable than she had earlier that day.

"He said not to eavesdrop on other people's phone calls," he told her smartly, earning himself a flip of the finger. "He said you can stay for now but he wants to talk to you before deciding on anything longer."

She nodded thoughtfully. "Does he know about the Fae stuff?"

"No. You know what they're like about humans, I didn't want to put him in any danger. Or tell him about my mom." Stiles swung his desk chair side to side as he spoke. "I did have to claim Scott though so he knows everything."

"Kinky." She laughed. "Though I'm betting he didn't put that love bite on your neck; I imagine Scott would run screaming into the night if you tried to put the moves on him."

Stiles grinned at how true that was and then proceeded to tell her all about testing out the whammy on Danny. At some point, they moved downstairs and put a DVD on but pretty much chatted through the whole thing. Erica was really good company when she wasn't putting on her new 'bad girl' act and she was just as geeky as Stiles was. He found himself wishing that he'd taken the time to get to know her years ago.

They fell into a comfortable and relaxed silence in order to catch the end of the movie so Stiles was taken completely by surprise when he felt Erica's fingers creep under the hem of his t-shirt to stroke against his bare stomach.

"Erica?" he turned to look at her which she seemed to take as permission to push herself to her knees and straddle his thighs.

She leaned forward to kiss him and Stiles jerked away.

"No," he told her and hurt flashed across her face.

She jumped away from him, moving to the opposite end of the couch and huddled her knees to her chest. Stiles cursed inwardly and slid closer to her.

"Erica? Hey, look at me." He caught her chin in his hand and tilted it towards him. "You don't need to do this. I didn't invite you here for this."

"I know that. I'm not a whore, Stiles," she snapped and he winced as he realised how his words had sounded to her. "I wanted to, okay. We were having such a great night and...I just wanted to."

"Okay," he nodded. "But you've kind of been through the whole gambit of emotions today. I think you're probably confused and I’m not going to exploit that. Even if there’s a voice in my head screaming at me about it because you’re really hot. Like, seriously smoking and you like Red Hood which is the coolest thing ever because so many other people don't even know who he is, and that’s just awesome.”

Erica snorted and rolled her eyes but the tension melted out of her. She stared into the distance for a while with her brow furrowed and Stiles just waited patiently as she sorted out whatever was going on in her head.

“I used to have a major crush on you, did you know that?” she finally said and Stiles stared at her in shock. “But you were human and out of bounds. Plus you were so busy mooning over Lydia that you never saw anyone else, let alone me. I was convinced that we’d be good together though; like Batman and Catwoman or something just as stupid.”

Stiles chuckled at that and she smiled back at him before she continued. “After I left home that last time, I decided that if my mom didn’t want to be in my life then she didn’t get to affect it anymore either. I can dress how I want, be friends with who I want and I’m going to go after what I want. So you can give me space to think about things if it makes you feel better but I’m coming for you, Stiles Stilinski, just let me know when you’re ready.”

With that, she gave him a cheeky wink and flounced off to bed leaving Stiles sitting on the sofa feeling like he just got hit with a two by four. He was still there when his dad got home.

“Women are confusing,” he said in lieu of ‘hello’.

His dad just laughed and patted him on the head as he walked by.

The next morning, Stiles woke early. Erica’s door was still closed but his dad was already up and doing paperwork at the kitchen table.

“I have to go and see someone,” Stiles told him as he hopped around the kitchen, pulling on his sneakers. “Be nice to Erica when she wakes up.”

His dad sent him a half hearted glare. “I do deal with people on a daily basis, you know. It’s sort of an important part of my job.”

“That’s what I mean.” Stiles pointed at him. “Don’t be the Sheriff; just be you...but a nicer version.”

“Ha ha!” His dad threw a piece of balled up paper at his head. “Go; it’ll give me a chance to get to know our new houseguest and, yes, I’ll be nice.”

Fifteen minutes later and Stiles was parking outside the Hale Mansion.

“Dude, I thought you were supposed to look after the Fae who align with your side,” Stiles said to Peter as soon as he was shown into the Great Hall.

“It’s nice to see you too, Mr Stilinski,” Peter replied with a raised eyebrow and if he was taken aback at being called ‘dude’ he didn’t show it. “To what do I owe this unscheduled pleasure?”

“Erica Reyes.” Stiles held Peter’s gaze. “She’s light Fae; you’re supposed to protect her if she’s in trouble. You and the Morrigan both keep feeding me lines about how nothing is more important than your clan but my twelve days aren't even past the halfway point before I find out what bullshit that is.”

Peter frowned. “I really have no idea what you’re talking about. Erica and her mother moved out of the area weeks ago.”

“And who told you that, her mom?” Stiles demanded and when Peter nodded, he huffed out an angry breath. “Well, she wasn’t going to tell you that she kicked Erica out with only a bag of clothes to her name.”

“What?” Peter’s eyes narrowed and his voice turned hard. For the first time, Stiles could see beyond the blandly pleasant man to the Ash; the leader. “How do you know this?”

“I ran into her yesterday. She was trying to scrape together money to live on and crashing on some creepy guy’s couch.” Stiles skirted around just how she was trying to get money.

“Tell me where and I’ll send someone to collect her,” Peter said, already reaching towards some button on his desk to call one of his minions.

“Don’t bother. She’s at my house; she’s going to be staying with me and my dad.” Stiles raised his chin defiantly, daring Peter to argue.

Peter hesitated, considering Stiles, and then pressed the button anyway. “I have to thank you then, Mr Stilinski, you and your father. There is still the matter of Erica’s mother to deal with, however, and I do not plan to take this lightly. I would like Derek to talk to Erica; just to see if she knows where her mother has gone and also to make sure she’s happy staying with you rather than taking a room here at the mansion.”

Stiles gritted his teeth at the idea of Erica rattling around in that impersonal house when what she obviously needed was someone to actually show that there cared about her. But he understood where Peter was coming from so he just gave a terse nod.

Derek entered the hall and approached Peter without so much as glance in Stiles’ direction. He listened as Peter explained the situation and Stiles was gratified to see a tick in Derek’s jaw when he found out what Erica’s mother had done. He was glad that the Fae were taking this as seriously as he was.

When Peter had finished he indicated that Stiles should follow Derek but called out just as Stiles was leaving the hall. “Thank you again. You’ve looked out for Erica almost as one would look after a fellow clan member. It’s impressive.”

Of course Peter wouldn’t let Stiles leave without another attempt to push Stiles towards the light. Stiles sighed and trailed Derek out to their respective vehicles.

Derek, being Derek, immediately took the lead of their mini convoy back to Stiles’ house. Stiles toyed with the idea of calling Erica and getting her to meet them somewhere else so he didn’t have to explain Derek’s presence in their house to his dad. Then he realised that he had no way of telling Derek about the change of plan without waving his arms at the car in front and hoping he'd spot it; he didn’t have Derek’s cell number or know if Derek even owned a cell.

He was driving almost on auto pilot so it took a moment to realise that Derek was indicating to turn off the track onto an even smaller dirt track. Frowning in confusion, Stiles followed suit, eying the denser forest around them and wondering what the hell Derek was up to. He appeared to be driving them to the middle of nowhere.

They kept driving until the trees became almost too closely packed to get the cars through then Derek slowed to a stop and Stiles pulled up behind him. Stiles was barely out of the jeep before Derek was suddenly there, pushing him back up against the door and licking a hot stripe up Stiles’ neck.

"Whoa...okay..." Stiles managed to gasp in surprise and tilted his head back further to give Derek more access.
"Not that I'm complaining but what's with the pouncing, big guy?"

"I got sent some interesting photos by Lydia Martin," Derek mumbled against his skin.

"Jesus, she really did send those to everyone." Stiles complained, at least, as much as he could complain with six foot of sexy shifter pressed up against him. "And hey, you do have a cell phone. I was wondering about that."

Derek pulled back just enough that he could glare at him.

"What?" Stiles frowned, taking in the way Derek's eyes were edging towards gold. "Oh my god, you were jealous!"

"No," Derek said before latching onto Stiles' neck again.

"You so were!" Stiles crowed. "You were jealous of Danny!"

Derek huffed. "Maybe I was jealous of you."

"Nah uh, don't give me that," Stiles told him, wiggling against the hold Derek had on his hips. "If you wanted Danny, you'd be pinning him up against cars right now."

"Stop talking," Derek growled and then covered Stiles' mouth with his own in order to stop Stiles' laughter.

Stiles melted into Derek, letting the other man take the lead, and when they finally came up for air he found that he was wrapped so thoroughly around Derek that daylight wouldn't be able to get between them.

"Good." Stiles panted. "You are very good at that."

Derek smirked and then manoeuvred Stiles until he was sitting on the hood of the jeep with Derek standing between his legs. With one hand on Stiles' chest Derek pushed him back until he was propped up on his elbows then Derek pushed Stiles' t-shirt up and began to nip and lick and suck his way across Stiles' stomach. Stiles' head dropped back and he just allowed himself to enjoy the pleasurable sensation, to enjoy the tingling under his skin as his hunger slowly began to build.

When he felt Derek nosing the trail of hairs below his belly button then slowly move lower, Stiles head shot up and he stared wide eyed as Derek popped open the buttons on Stiles' jeans...with his teeth.

"Holy shit! That's the hottest thing I've ever seen," Stiles breathed.

Derek chuckled and the hot breath against Stiles through his cotton briefs made Stiles' hips buck. Derek took the opportunity to quickly yank Stiles' jeans and underwear down to his thighs and then held Stiles' hips steady as he dipped his head down.

"Fuck..." Stiles hissed as he was suddenly surrounded by wet heat and suction and tongue.

Derek hummed and the vibrations shot up Stiles' spine. He tried to arch up but Derek's hands were like iron holding him in place and, damn, if that didn't make everything even hotter. He was completely at Derek's mercy as the other man proceeded to drive him wild with that wicked, wonderful, wicked tongue.

Stiles wasn't sure when he'd shifted his balance so that he was just leaning on one elbow but his spare hand was suddenly clutching tightly onto Derek's hair and, from the moans Derek was giving around him, he didn't mind one bit. This was good because Stiles didn’t think he could let go anyway.

The pleasure was spiralling through Stiles tighter and higher and he could distantly hear the wanton moans he was making but he didn't care. Then Derek moved his head even lower and just swallowed around him and that was it. Stiles cried out Derek's name to the cloudless blue sky and shuddered. His elbow gave out beneath him and he fell back onto the hood, breathing hard like he'd just run a marathon.

They stayed like that for a moment; Stiles sprawled with Derek's head laying gently on his thigh, both struggling for breath. Then the hunger which had been growing, spreading through Stiles' body like liquid heat in his veins, refused to be ignored any longer. Stiles sat up and put a hand on the back of Derek's neck to pull him up too.

Derek gasped when he looked at Stiles' face and Stiles knew that his eyes must've been doing that blue glowing thing Scott had described from the night of the rave. Far from frightening Derek away though, Stiles could feel him get harder against the inside of his thigh. They both grabbed onto each other, meeting in a clash of teeth and lips and moans. Stiles could taste himself in Derek's mouth and he chased after every last bit of that flavour until he could just taste Derek again.

His hands reached for Derek's belt, shaking so much from need that Derek had to help him, eagerly shoving the material out of the way. Derek gave a loud groan as Stiles' hand wrapped around him, moving in a punishing rhythm which only seemed to push Derek higher until he grabbed Stiles' face.

"Now, Stiles," he gasped, his eyes blown. "Feed now... please...oh, fuck..."

Stiles kissed him as deeply as he could, pulling the glowing energy from within Derek and swallowing it greedily. Derek's hips jerked once and he whined into Stiles' mouth, stiffening against him before they both collapsed back against the jeep.

Stiles wasn't sure how long they stayed there, curled up against each other on the hood of his jeep, only that by the time he came back to himself his heart beat had regulated and his breathing had returned to normal.

"You really like me feeding from you, huh?" He asked Derek softly as he stroked his fingers through the other man's hair.

Derek hummed lazily in agreement. "Never felt anything like it. I've been thinking about it ever since the last time."

Stiles would've been offended by that if not for the fact that if Derek only wanted him for the feeding part he wouldn't have taken the time to so thoroughly blow Stiles' mind first. Or enjoy doing it as much as he obviously had.

"So that's why you got all Neanderthal wolf over the Danny thing?" Stiles asked instead.

Derek shifted uncomfortably. "Wolves are territorial by nature."

He pushed himself away from Stiles and busied himself with righting his clothes.

Stiles frowned at his sudden change of mood and slowly sat up too. "It's not like I minded," he pointed out.

"You're an Incubus, Stiles. Your kind aren't known for being monogamous; in fact it's a bad idea if you are." Derek sighed, still turned away from Stiles.

Stiles could see the wisdom behind that statement; feeding from just one person wasn't going to be good for that other person. He fed off Derek twice that week and, though Stiles was feeling great, Derek was looking a little drawn. Just a little but Stiles was sure that it would get worse if things kept going with the frequency they had.

"But you want me to be, don’t you? You don't just want a hook-up," Stiles said in surprise. "I thought you didn't even like me very much."

"I don't sleep with everyone I meet." Derek finally turned to face him, glowering a little.

"So, you actually wanted to have sex with me last time?" Stiles asked. "You weren't just doing it to stop me going crazy and feeding on an unsuspecting human? I mean, I know we had a great time but I thought it only started because you were trying to help me."

Derek raked his fingers through his hair obviously uncomfortable talking about this. "It's been my job to watch you the past few years, looking for signs of Fae in you..."

"Wait," Stiles broke in. "That's why you kept hanging out at the high school parties? I thought you were just a creeper."

Derek gave him a look and Stiles fluttered his hands in some sort of apology/'carry on' hybrid.

"I hated it; having to watch this hyperactive, annoying kid when there was better things I could be doing," Derek said, ignoring Stiles' 'gee, thanks'. "But you grew up and I...could see some merit to you."

"Some merit?" Stiles asked incredulously.

Derek huffed. "You're big hearted. You look after everyone from your father to your idiot friend, McCall to that girl who drank too much at the graduation party. I saw how you sat with her all night, feeding her water and missing out on the fun."

Stiles didn't know what to say to that so he cracked a joke instead. "You forgot to mention my sexy body and stunning good looks."

Derek didn't laugh though; instead he slowly drew his eyes over Stiles' body, from feet to the top of his head, in such an intimate way that it felt like a caress. "There's that too."

The heat in Derek's eyes made Stiles' stomach lurch.

"Fuck..." Stiles swallowed hard.

"Maybe next time," Derek said with a smirk and Stiles may have let out a tiny whimper at that.

Stiles' head was spinning. Derek wanted him, like really wanted him. And Stiles liked that idea; getting to know the other man, finding out what made him tick; having a relationship. But that brought him back to the only feeding on one person thing and he couldn't do that to Derek.

"I could handle it," Derek told him and Stiles blinked in surprise before realising that he'd said that out loud.

"No, you couldn't." Stiles held up a hand as Derek started to protest. "It's a bad idea, you just said that and it was true. You know it."

Derek grumbled but didn't try to protest it again. Instead he glared at a nearby tree as if it had personally offended him.

Stiles sighed and then an idea occurred to him. Derek wasn’t the only person who wanted to be with Stiles; Erica had made her feelings perfectly clear the night before. Feelings which Stiles was more than a little interested in, if he were being honest. He really did like her a lot considering that, despite knowing her all through school, he’d only really known her for a day. She was funny and easy to talk to once you got past the prickly exterior, plus she was really hot.

Jesus, they were both gorgeous and they both wanted him; which kind of made his brain explode from the weird. He was Stiles; the less good looking half of the Stiles/Scott partnership and neither one of them had ever been high on the list of Beacon Hills hunks.

Derek was still glaring at the tree so, before he could chicken out, Stiles slid closer and wrapped his arms around Derek from behind. Derek tensed for a moment before letting out a deep breath and relaxing back against him.

“What if I was a one guy guy?” Stiles asked tentatively, hooking his chin over Derek’s shoulder. “You’d be the only male that I feed from.”

“You can’t say ‘feed’ as if I’ll forget that the feeding involves sex,” Derek said and Stiles huffed out a laugh because that’s exactly what he’d done. “So, I’d be the only man and then you sleep around with as many women as you want? That’s your big plan?”

“Actually, I was thinking of just one woman too,” Stiles told him. “If she agrees to the whole sharing me idea and I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation. What the hell happened to my life? I figured I was going to find someone, one person, who actually appreciates my awesome sense of humour and then settle down. I was not going to try and negotiate some kind of Stiles time share deal with two people, both of whom I’ve really known for less than a week.”

“Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the Fae,” Derek deadpanned. He turned his head slightly to look at Stiles. “So there would just be two of us?”

“If she goes along with it, yes,” Stiles agreed. “You and me, me and her. Is that acceptable, Mr Territorial?”

Derek rolled his eyes at Stiles’ teasing smile. “I don’t know but it’s worth a try. Is it Lydia?”

“And get killed by Jackson and his girly powers?” Stiles snorted. “It’s Erica.”

Derek stiffened. “Erica, who’s living with you?”

“Erica, who my dad’s going to be watching like a hawk.” Stiles rubbed a hand soothingly over Derek’s stomach, beginning to think this was more than just the wolf thing. That maybe Derek had been hurt by someone in the past. “I’ve already had the ‘separate bedrooms’ emphasised. I’ll be getting the ‘not under my roof’ speech within the next 24 hours, I guarantee it.”

Derek grunted at that and then pushed himself off the hood of the jeep. He turned around and drew Stiles into another kiss. This one wasn’t as frantic as the others had been; instead it was a gentle, lazy exploration that ignited a warm feeling in Stiles’ chest. It was a promise that they were making to explore this thing between them.

Breaking off, Derek then slowly kissed his way along Stiles’ jaw to the spot behind Stiles’ ear that had become a recent weakness.

“We need to go,” Stiles groaned even as he tilted his head.

Derek hummed but didn’t stop.

“Dude, as much as I’d love to stay here all day,” Stiles said, his fingers digging into Derek’s biceps, “And I really, really do. We’ve got to leave.”

That finally seemed to get through and, with a final kiss to Stiles’ skin, Derek pulled back. Stiles hopped off the hood of the jeep and pulled at his clothing, trying to get it in some sort of order to no avail. He looked Derek over, taking in how dishevelled he looked too, and realised that they couldn’t face his dad like that.

“I’ll call Erica. Get her to meet us somewhere,” he announced. “Unless you want me to get the third degree from my dad because there is no way he’ll not know what we’ve just been doing.”

Derek chuckled. “Tell her to meet us at the park near your house.”

Stiles dialled his phone as he climbed into the jeep and was greeted with the sounds of laughter when Erica answered.

“Stiles, we were just talking about you,” she said, and he could hear his dad snort in the background.

“Do I even want to know what you’re talking about?” Stiles asked.

“Your dad was just telling me about your 10th birthday...”

Stiles groaned. “Oh my god! In my defence the clown started it!”

Erica giggled. “Yeah, your dad said you’d say that.”

“I am so going to regret introducing you two,” he whined but was secretly pleased that they seemed to be getting on so well. “Hey, I need you to meet me at the park. Is that okay?”

“I can do that,” she agreed before bursting out laughing again at something his dad had just said. “We’ve got to get back before your dad goes to work though; he’s getting out the baby albums.”

Stiles started banging his head against his steering wheel in despair.

Erica was already at the park waiting for them when Derek and Stiles pulled up; her full make-up back in place and wearing the shortest skirt Stiles had ever seen. He dragged his gaze away from her shapely legs to see that she had narrowed her eyes at Derek’s presence.

“You went to the Ash?!” she all but shouted.

Stiles held his hands out placatingly but before he could say anything Derek was suddenly behind him with a hand on his shoulder.

"He went to yell at the Ash. On your behalf so show some gratitude," Derek told her in a tight voice.

Erica stopped short at that, her eyes wide. "You yelled at the Ash?"

Stiles shrugged. "He deserved it; he's supposed to look out for you."

She gave him a blinding smile and Stiles could feel Derek step even closer to him. He used one finger to stroke Stiles' neck; over what Stiles now realised was a mark that Derek had deliberately left there. Erica instantly zeroed in on it and her smile faltered a little as she finally took in their 'we've just been screwing like rabbits' appearance.

Stiles shrugged Derek's hand away, turning his head to shoot him a pointed look that said he knew exactly what Derek was doing. Derek gave him an unrepentant smirk which made Stiles sigh in exasperation. He stepped closer to Erica, taking her hand to pull her to a nearby bench with Derek following close behind.

"Apparently, your mom skipped town too and told the Ash that you were going with her," Stiles told Erica in a gentle voice once they were both settled on the bench.

Erica was in the middle of some sort of stare-out contest with Derek so it took a moment for Stiles' words to register. "Yeah, your dad already told me that he found our house abandoned when he went over there yesterday."

Stiles startled; his dad hadn't mentioned that to him but, to be fair, Stiles had run out of the house pretty quickly that morning. He felt stupid for not realising that; of course, his dad would want a word with Erica's mom about all of this.

"It's not really surprising," Erica continued. "She never wanted to be out among people who trampled over her precious plants; she just came here because the laws say I had to go to school."

Erica had explained a little bit about Land Wights the night before when Stiles admitted he had no idea what they were. Apparently they were protectors of nature, each ruling over a chosen area and helping to promote the growth of plants and trees. Erica's mom could also shape shift into vines which, Stiles was pretty sure, had put him off anime porn for life.

"Do you think she went back to her old forest?" Derek asked.

Erica didn't say anything for a moment then asked in a small voice, "What's the Ash going to do to her?"

Derek shrugged but Stiles could see a slight softening in his eyes as he looked at Erica. "I honestly don't know. He is very angry; you know how seriously he takes his role here, as protector of young Fae."

Releasing a shaky breath, Erica nodded and stared at the ground. Stiles immediately put his arm around her and she curled into his side. They stayed like that for a few minutes, both the men giving Erica some time to collect herself.

"A wood nymph moved into her forest," Erica eventually said. "Mom was really angry about it but I'm not sure if she'd go back and challenge him; even she had to admit that he's doing a good job there. She's probably gone to find a new area to protect. She used to mention that we should go south, you know, back before I manifested as Maenad."

"Okay," Derek nodded. "I'll let you know if we find any information on her."

Stiles felt a shudder go through her as she obviously imagined what Peter was going to do when he got his hands on her mother. From what Stiles had gathered from Deaton's books, Fae punishment was particularly harsh and Erica's mom had personally offended and misled the Ash. He tightened his arm around Erica.

"It'll be okay," he murmured into her hair. "Whatever happens, we'll find some way to deal with it."

Erica looked up at his face. "We?"

Stiles smiled at her. "Batman and Catwoman, remember?"

She gave a surprised chuckle and then nodded before she visibly pulled herself together. Stiles could see the tough girl mask fall back into place but he wasn't worried; he was getting to know the girl beneath the mask and that's what was important.

Pleased that he'd managed to cheer Erica up a little, Stiles looked up at Derek to find him scowling at the way Stiles and Erica were still snuggled up against each other. From the slightly sly smile on Erica's face, she'd also noticed.

"The Ash would also like me to extend an invitation for you to stay at the mansion," Derek informed her stiffly. "If you'd prefer that to staying with Stiles and his dad."

Erica deliberately wriggled even closer to Stiles and slipped a hand under his t-shirt, pretending that she couldn't hear Derek's growl. "I think I'm going to be just fine with Stiles, thank you."

"Oh, dear god!" Stiles muttered, covering his face with his hand.

"Not worried that you're taking advantage of his good nature?" he heard Derek ask Erica.

Erica laughed. "I'm definitely planning on taking advantage of something."

Stiles yelped as he felt her hand slide down to cup him through his jeans and he jumped off the bench.

"Bad touch!" he told the grinning Erica but she wasn't even looking at him; instead she was staring at Derek, her eyebrow raised in a clear challenge.

Derek narrowed his eyes at her and then nodded once before grabbing Stiles by the front of his shirt and dragging him into a passionate and very thorough kiss. Stiles couldn't help himself from melting into it despite everything; there was something so addicting about Derek's kisses.

When Derek eventually pulled away, Stiles was a panting and slightly stunned mess. Derek grinned at him and ran his fingers over his mark just once before turning on his heels and marching towards his car.

"I'll be in touch," he threw back over his shoulder.

"Look forward to it!" Erica yelled back, sounding pissed off.

Stiles watched Derek drive away and hesitantly turned to look at Erica. She had her arms crossed and was glaring in the direction the car had just disappeared in.

"Umm..."

"He thinks he's won," she muttered, almost to herself. "I haven't even started yet."

Stiles swallowed hard at that statement. "I kind of wanted to talk to you about that."

Erica's eyes shot to him. "I'm not giving up, Stilinski. I told you last night..."

"You're coming for me. I heard that, loud and clear," Stiles told her with a smile.

"And don't you forget it." She smirked. "So what's there to talk about?"

"Well, me and Derek? We're umm..." Stiles flailed a hand in the air.

"Fucking? Yeah, I got that, thanks," Erica said dryly.

Stiles flushed. "Yeah, sorry about that; he's a little possessive." Erica snorted and Stiles chuckled. "Yeah, anyway...it's more than that. I really like him."

Erica suddenly looked unsure. "So you're saying I don't have a chance?"

"No!" Stiles protested and moved back to the bench to sit next to her. "I really like you too. Seriously, you've no idea how much I regret not getting to know you ages ago. You're kind of awesome."

Erica smiled at that but then looked confused again. "I don't..."

Stiles took a deep breath and plunged in. "I can't just be with one person exclusively. I mean I want to because I've always wanted what my parents had, you know? But this Fae thing has thrown a spanner in that. I can't feed from just one person, even a Fae, without hurting them; maybe killing them and I am dead set against killing anyone, even Jackson. Not that I ever want to feed from Jackson, because just no."

He stopped and closed his eyes for a moment. He hated the fact that he descended into babbling when he was nervous. This had been so much easier with Derek when they were both still high off the sex endorphins.

"What I'm saying is that I can't be with only one person but I don't want to sleep around either; that's just not me. So I thought..."

"You could be with two people exclusively," Erica finished. "Is that it? You want to be with both of us?"

Stiles nodded, not looking at her.

"And Derek's okay with that?" She asked incredulously.

Stiles had to smile at that and she didn't sound mad, which was a plus.

"Well, not okay, obviously." He gestured to his neck and Derek's mark. "But he said it was worth a try."

Erica didn't say anything for a moment and when Stiles risked glancing up, she was studying him with a fond expression.

"I think he's right," she said before leaning forward and pressing her lips to his.

It was a chaste kiss, not what he was expecting from Erica but one which made him tingle nonetheless.

He licked his lips, tasting her lip gloss, and looked at the way she was suddenly studying Derek's mark on him.

"I'm going to have to do something better than that," she announced.

"Oh no!" Stiles pointed at her warningly. "This is not going to turn into some weird one upmanship thing between you and Derek. I'm not a toy."

She just grinned at him wickedly and then grabbed his hand to start tugging him towards the jeep. "Come on, your dad and baby photos await."

"I mean it!" Stiles said and Erica laughed.

The baby photos thing turned out to be a lot of fun with Stiles and his dad taking turns to tell stories and Erica laughing so hard that she almost fell off her chair at one point. It was weirdly homely. There had just been Stiles and his dad for so long that it wasn't until Erica was there that Stiles realised something big had been missing. Not affection, there'd been no lack of that, just that there had been a black hole left by Stiles' mom which they'd been unknowingly orbiting. A space for a third person in the house which Erica fit into perfectly with her loud laughter and bright smiles, giving the house an extra warmth that it hadn't had for a long time.

Stiles' dad seemed to see it too. He cleared his throat during a lull in the conversation and looked seriously at Erica.

"Is this what you want? To live here with us?" he asked.

Erica blinked and glanced away for a moment. "Yes, I think so. I...I didn't like being on my own," she admitted, a flicker of sadness crossing her face.

Stiles' dad nodded sympathetically. "Okay then. From what I could tell yesterday, your mother didn't take much, if anything, with her. So, while I'm at work, Stiles can drive you to the house and you can pick up some belongings to move in here."

She gave his dad such a grateful smile that Stiles' heart broke a little for what she'd been through.

"There will be rules," his dad continued but he was smiling too. "You'll have to pull your weight around the house..."

"Of course," she agreed readily.

"Good. Then on that note, I'm heading out." Stiles dad stood and grabbed his jacket, having already changed into his uniform earlier.

Stiles gave Erica a smile and then followed his dad out to the car. "What happened to the trial period?"

"That's when I thought she could still go home to her mother," his dad said, scrubbing a hand over the back of his head. "Kicks her daughter out with nothing and then skips town. I swear I'll never understand some people."

Stiles nodded and then gave his dad a hug. "Thank you."

"You're a good kid," his dad told him, returning the hug. "The separate room thing still stands though; don't think I didn't notice the looks between the two of you. Not under my roof."

Stiles laughed and mentally patted himself on the back for calling that one.

His dad studied him and then sighed. "At least not when I'm home. I'm too smart to think nothing's going to happen at all. Just...try not to mentally scar me and keep to separate rooms so I can at least pretend."

"Have I told you lately how awesome you are?" Stiles grinned.

His dad scoffed and rolled his eyes before climbing into his cruiser.

Stiles walked back into the house to be met with an armful of Erica. He laughed and hugged her back.

“I told you that he’d let you stay.”

“You know, I actually might prefer him to you,” Erica told him and Stiles pretended to pout.

Erica giggled and then kissed him. The kiss started out as gentle as the last one but quickly deepened when Erica opened her mouth on a throaty moan. Stiles pulled Erica’s body closer to him and then walked her backwards towards the couch, just dropping down onto it when there was a knock at the door.

Erica swore loudly and Stiles dropped his head to her shoulder with a groan.

“I’ll get rid of them,” he told her, climbing back to his feet and stomping to the door.

He flung it open to reveal an annoyed looking Morrigan on the other side. She swept into the room uninvited, only pausing when she spotted Erica sitting on the sofa.

“Yes, I heard you had one of the light staying with you now.” Kate turned to look at Stiles and crossed her arms. “I thought we’d discussed this, Stiles.”

Stiles frowned in confusion. “Discussed what?”

Kate huffed. “The fact that you seem determined not to give the dark Fae a fair chance. You’re hanging out with Lydia and that Danny kid, now you’ve got this one living in your house. All of them light Fae.”

Erica openly bristled at being referred to as ‘this one’ but Stiles waved a hand at her to keep calm.

“I’ve also been spending a lot of time with Allison,” Stiles pointed out.

“Allison and your human,” Kate spat. “Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on there.“

Stiles looked at her in surprise, unsure why she was quite so angry. He’d got the feeling from Allison that Kate had been quite encouraging about, what her mother had called, ‘her rebellion’.

“Fae and humans don’t mix,” Kate was still saying. “It’s disgusting; a beautiful girl like Allison with a pet.”

“Is it really?” Stiles’ voice was flat as he could feel his own temper rising.

Kate gave a humourless laugh, still on a roll. “What’s wrong, Stiles? You think your mother was a hero for giving up being a Fae to be with your dad? It was sickening. The old Ash should’ve done something about it immediately.”

Stiles stared at her for a moment and then said, “Get out.”

“What did you just say to me?” Kate looked astonished that someone would stand up to her.

“I told you to get out of my home,” Stiles repeated. “Although I would like to thank you for making my alignment decision a whole lot easier.”

Kate’s mouth worked soundlessly a few times then she straightened her back haughtily. “It’s not over until the final meeting at the Ash’s mansion, Stiles. Don’t be so sure that you’re going to end up with the light.”

With that she left, slamming the door closed behind her.

“What the fuck was that all about?” Erica asked.

“I’ve no idea,” Stiles replied as he forced his hands to unclench from the fists they’d curled into.

“Shit...” Stiles heard Erica mutter then she was suddenly next to him, pulling his hands into hers and stroking her fingers over the half moon crescents his nails had cut into his palm. “Don’t listen to her, okay? I saw those photos, your parents were obviously crazy about each other and there’s nothing disgusting about that.”

Stiles sighed and nodded. “I know that, I just...Jesus, what the hell? And why is she so determined to get me to join the dark?”

“You’re a catch,” Erica told him with a wink and then pulled him back over to the sofa. “She’d get an Incubus at her beck and call and it’ll raise her profile with the elders and the other territories.”

“Seriously?” Stiles frowned. “I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t if they met me.”

Erica laughed. “You do get that Incubi are rare, don’t you? I mean, Succubae aren’t that common and there are still far more of them than there are of you guys.”

Stiles actually hadn’t known that. “It would be really helpful if people told me this stuff. I swear the Fae are the most infuriating people, it’s like they just expect me to know everything instantly and half of it isn't even in the books I've been loaned."

"You'll get there," Erica told him. "You've got me to help you now. Derek too but mostly me."

Stiles couldn't help but smile at Erica's mischievous grin. "You two are going to be the death of me, aren't you?"

"But what a way to go." Erica threw her arms around his neck. "So why don't we pick up the stuff from my house and then I can spend the rest of the day giving you a thorough education; starting with the powers of a Maenad."

The heat in Erica's eyes made Stiles' heartbeat pick up. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed Erica's hand, dragging her to the door.

"The quicker we go, the quicker we get back," he said and Erica laughed all the way to the jeep.

Stiles didn't know what he was expecting to find at Erica's house but it was perfectly normal looking; just like any other house he'd been in. After they let themselves in, Erica stood silently in the middle of the living room, looking around sadly at the remnants of her old life. Stiles wrapped his arms around her and let her lean against him as she took some time to work through everything going on in her head.

Eventually she turned and gave Stiles a gentle kiss thank you and then sighed as she looked at the room again.

"Okay, you start down here. We both know my mom won't be coming back so grab anything that you think we could use at your house, beginning with the coffee table," she told him.

Stiles gave her a sheepish grin. His own coffee table had lots of cracks where it had been glued back together. A casualty of a particularly rowdy game of Grand Theft Auto between him and Scott.

Erica went upstairs to gather things and Stiles got on with his task, creating two piles on the living room floor; one of items which could come in handy at his house and one of more personal things which he thought Erica might want to take with her. A couple of hours later, he had his head stuck in a kitchen cupboard trying to figure out what half the cooking implements did and whether they needed any of them, when he heard Erica call him.

He followed her voice up the stairs and headed towards the only open door, pausing in the doorway. This was obviously Erica's bedroom and there were packed bags and boxes all over the floor but his eyes were drawn to the bed.

Erica had changed out of what she'd been wearing and was kneeling on the bed in chocolate brown short shorts and a matching tank top which obviously had nothing underneath it. Her hair had been pulled up into two messy knots on the top of her head.

"It's not really a bear costume but it's the best I could do at short notice," Erica said with smile and Stiles chuckled.

She held her hand out to him and Stiles instantly crossed the room, climbing up onto the bed with her. He slid one hand around to her back of her head and pulled her into a kiss, licking into her mouth with a groan. Everything that had been buzzing between them for the past two days suddenly ratcheted up and they fell back onto the bed in a tangle of limbs, hands grasping and tugging at clothing frantically.

Stiles slipped a hand underneath her top and suddenly froze because boobs.

He had absolutely no idea what he was doing. With Derek, he'd gone with the logic that what felt good to him would feel good to Derek but Erica had extra bits and he was pretty sure that his, admittedly large, collection of porn bookmarks wasn't actually going to help him right now.

Giving him a knowing look, Erica reached up and pulled her top off completely. While Stiles was busy staring at the now exposed and right freaking there boobs, she covered his hand with her own and pulled to cup one of her breasts. At the feel of the smooth skin against his hand, Stiles blinked off his stupor and actually paid attention again. He experimentally brushed a finger over the nipple and Erica gasped, arching her back a little.

"Harder..." she demanded and Stiles complied, grinning at the reaction he got.

"This is awesome," he told her, repeating the action with her other nipple. "Everyone should have a pair of these to play with."

Erica gave a breathless laugh. "If you're a very good boy, I'll let you play with them whenever you want."

Stiles laughed too and then gave in to his urge to taste, lowering his head to suck a nipple into his mouth and flicking his tongue over it. Erica whined high in her throat and her hands clutched fistfuls of his t-shirt before they suddenly started pushing at the material.

"Off..." she said. "We need to get naked, right now!"

Stiles couldn't agree more and the next few moments were a flurry of activity as they both scrambled out of their clothes then came back together, both moaning at the feel of naked skin.

Erica rolled them until she was on top, straddling Stiles' thighs and leaning down to kiss him deeply. Stiles got the feeling that he wasn't going to be the dominant one in either of his relationships but he had no problem with that; he sort of liked being pushed around in the bedroom.

And whoa...there was a sudden epiphany about his lifelong crush on Lydia.

They began to rock against each other, gasping into each other's mouths and hands everywhere at once as if neither of them could decide where they wanted to touch the most. When Erica pulled back from the kiss and sat up, Stiles could see that her eyes were beginning to glow violet.

"Come on, Stiles," she moaned, scratching her fingers down his chest. "Now...I need you..."

He blindly reached over the side of the bed and, after some flailing about, managed to snag his wallet out of his jeans pocket.

"Hah!" he exclaimed triumphantly as he pulled out the condom hidden behind his cards. No one could ever accuse him of not being well prepared and, at the least, very hopeful.

Erica plucked the small packet out of his hand and busied herself with rolling it on him before holding his gaze deliberately and slowly lowered herself onto him too. Stiles cursed and his hands shot out, gripping her hips and holding her still in order to stop this from being over way before either of them wanted it to be.

He closed his eyes and thought about running suicides in Lacrosse, Coach Finstock naked, Allison's mom; anything to distract him from the heat and tight silk feel of Erica surrounding him.

When Erica began to shift restlessly and whine his name, Stiles opened his eyes again and looked up at her. She was beautiful; flushed, her violet eyes flashing, her bottom lip red and swollen from where she was biting it and she was his. He loosened his grip and surged up to kiss her as he started to move.

He'd already fed that day, which kind of blew his mind if he thought about it too much, so his hunger was more of a low grade simmer beneath his skin as Erica pushed him back down onto the bed. She planted one of her hands on his chest to balance herself as she moved above him, she used her other hand to guide Stiles' between them, showing him just where and how she needed to be touched. When he got the rhythm right, she shuddered and cried out, a violet glow now surrounding her entire body.

She suddenly locked eyes with him and Stiles felt a curious tug deep in his body before he realised that he was starting to glow as well, that familiar blue that he saw when he was feeding from Derek. She was manipulating his energy and her own. The moment the blue glow touched the violet, Stiles jerked as if he'd been shocked and it felt like all his nerve endings had come alive at once and the intense sensations he'd already been feeling increased tenfold.

"Holy fuck, Erica..." he managed to get out and she grinned at him, never letting up on the way she ground down against him.

The violet and the blue began to swirl together above them, entwining and spiralling in an echo of the pleasure spiralling through Stiles and just before his orgasm hit, the colours burst apart and shot back into the two of them. It was like being hit by some weird freight train of ecstasy and Stiles screamed as he fell apart, feeling more than seeing Erica doing the same above him.

They collapsed against each other, shaking as they came down.

"I'm going to go ahead and proclaim the bear costume a definite winner," Stiles said when he finally managed to gather the mental faculties to talk and Erica snorted into his shoulder.

They took their time getting out of bed, trading lazy kisses and enjoying the afterglow. Then the rest of the day was spent moving Erica's belongings into Stiles' house and deciding where best to put everything. Scott showed up in the early evening and Erica quickly put him to work moving the heaviest items with Stiles while she did bizarre girly stuff with cushions that neither of the boys understood.

Despite Erica's instructions, Scott spent the first ten minutes staring open mouthed at Erica's new makeover.

"Dude, you're getting drool all over yourself," Stiles eventually said, nudging Scott with his shoulder.

Scott blinked at him. "But...that's Erica! Erica from school, the one in our class!" He hissed as if Stiles somehow wouldn't have realised that yet.

"I know," Stiles told him, giving Erica a soft smile when she looked over from her cushion arranging and shot him a wink.

Scot looked between them and his eyes widened.

"Oh my god, you..." he cut himself off and then dragged Stiles out to the porch.”I don't see you for a couple of days and you get yourself a girlfriend?" he accused. "And you're moving her into your house! And it's Erica who suddenly looks really hot! She didn't look this hot in school and I just missed it, right?"

Stiles couldn't stop himself from grinning at the shock in Scott's face and proceeded to tell him all about running into Erica at the restaurant.

"Jesus," Scott said when he'd finished. "Makes you appreciate our parents, huh?"

"Definitely," Stiles nodded in agreement.

They'd moved to sit on the porch steps and Stiles guessed that Erica was giving them some space to talk.

"So, you two...you're dating now?" Scott asked.

"Yeah," Stiles replied with what he was sure was a pretty dopey grin.

Scott grinned back and punched his shoulder lightly. "Good for you, man. Plus I won't have to deal with Derek now; I had nightmares about you two deciding to become a proper couple or something."

Scott laughed, only trailing off when he realised that, not only wasn't Stiles laughing with him but he was shifting guiltily. "What?"

Stiles winced. "Umm...I kind of am dating him. You know, as well as Erica."

"What?" Scott repeated, except this time it was screeched at a register which was sure to get dogs howling up and down the street.

"I need sex to feed, dude," Stiles defended himself. "I was going to end up cheating on either one of them to stop myself from hurting them. This way they both know I'm only going to be with the other and I won't walk around feeling like shit for the cheating thing."

Scot was silent as that sunk in. "Your life has turned fucking weird, man."

"You're telling me." Stiles huffed out a breath and glanced at his friend. "Too weird for you?"

"No." Scott shook his head instantly and Stiles' shoulders slumped with relief. "You're my best friend, Stiles. It'll take more than this to get rid of me. Although, I would like it if you pointed out to your...your boyfriend that you'll be really pissed off if he rips my throat out one day."

"Deal." Stiles laughed despite the fact that his stomach had flipped at the word 'boyfriend'. He decided to try it out with Erica. "Shall we go and help my girlfriend with her stuff now?"

Yep, more stomach flipping.

Scott shook his head. "So fucking weird."

Erica and Scott got along really well, which was hardly surprising because they were both awesome. Once everything was put away, they played video games for the rest of the night. Erica, as the newcomer, got to choose and decided on 'Arkham City' with a wink and a wicked smile at Stiles. The game quickly turned competitive though with Erica and Scott soundly kicking Stiles' ass over how many trophies they collected, causing him to sulk as they high-fived each other.

Stiles woke up the next morning, pretty happy with life. He sighed contentedly and snuggled closer to the warm body behind him. Then his eyes snapped open as he realised there was a warm body behind him.

He quickly turned over and almost fell out of bed at the sight of Derek stretched out on the bed watching him.

"What are you doing?" Stiles hissed. "Did you sneak in here to watch me sleep? That's weird, Derek!"

"I came to check you were okay," Derek told him. "I heard Kate visited you."

Derek was frowning as he raked his eyes over Stiles and Stiles realised that he could see genuine worry in his eyes.

"I'm fine," Stiles rushed to assure him, linking their hands together. "She showed up, yelled a bit and then I threw her out."

Derek's eyebrows rose to his hairline. "You threw the Morrigan out of your house?"

"Yeah, well," Stiles shrugged. "She was being mean about stuff she has no business discussing."

Derek kept staring at him for a moment before his shoulders suddenly started to shake and he burst out laughing. "I bet her face was a picture," he practically howled, burying his face in Stiles arm.

"Stiles?" His bedroom door burst open and Erica ran in. "Are you okay? I heard...oh, Derek. I didn't know you were here."

She crossed her arms and glared at Derek but that just seemed to make him laugh even harder. Stiles met her eyes and shrugged; he had no idea what was going on.

"He threw Kate out," Derek managed to gasp at Erica and her lips twitched.

"Yeah, that was pretty funny," she conceded. "I don't think anyone's dared to do that to her before. She looked like she'd been slapped by a wet fish."

That started Derek laughing all over again and Erica joined in as she closed the bedroom door and dropped into Stiles' desk chair.

Stiles shoved himself up to sit against the wall and looked at Derek in bemusement. He wasn't sure why Derek found it as funny as he did but it was nice to see him cut loose like that.

Slowly Derek got control over himself and the room descended into a comfortable silence which Stiles, of course, had to break.

"Why were you so worried that she was here, anyway?" he asked Derek.

Derek instantly frowned again and Stiles wanted to kick himself for his inability to just enjoy the moment.

"Kate...she has a way of getting under your skin," Derek said. "Making you do things you wouldn't normally do."

"Oh!" Stiles nodded. "I know all about that. Don't worry I won't let her touch me; I saw what she did to that guy in her office."

"What are you talking about?" Derek tilted his head to look at Stiles.

"You know, her whammy thing. Like me and Lydia." Stiles wiggled his fingers in the air to demonstrate. "I guess it's a Valkyrie power but it's not in the books I looked at. I told you half this stuff's not in them." He directed that last part to Erica.

Erica looked confused though. "What whammy thing? Valkyries are warriors, their power comes with fighting."

Stiles shook his head. "No, I saw her do it. Some guy was getting all stressy and arguing with her then she put her hand on his arm and it did the glow thing. The one that happens when me and Lydia talk people into stuff. Then the guy calmed down and agreed with whatever she was saying."

Erica looked surprised but when he turned to Derek, the other man looked furious. He pushed himself off Stiles' bed and started prowling around the room, growling lowly to himself.

"Derek?" Stiles asked in concern.

"She... I always wondered," Derek was muttering. "I thought it was my fault..."

Stiles padded across the room until he was standing in front of Derek, forcing him to stop. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Kate’s father is a Seniatta; they can influence people’s emotions and actions on a long term basis. Make them do things,” Derek said, looking pained.

“So you’re saying that you think she’s got an extra power from him just like I did with my mom,” Stiles said and Derek nodded.

“She did something to you, didn’t she?” Erica asked Derek quietly. “You said, you thought it was your fault.”

“I...” Derek broke off and raked his hand through his hair. “We had a relationship when I was sixteen. It never made sense because we’ve always...our families have hated each other for generations and we were no different. I hated her but it was like I couldn’t control myself.”

“Shit!” Stiles swore and immediately wrapped himself around Derek, automatically leaning his head to one side a little to allow Derek to ground himself in Stiles’ scent.

He glanced over Derek’s shoulder at Erica who looked as horrified and angry as Stiles felt. What the fuck was wrong with the Fae? They believed they were so far above humans yet the actions of some of them made Stiles sick to his stomach. Erica’s mom abandoned her with nothing and now hearing what Kate had done to an underage Derek...Stiles really had to struggle to push down his anger and comfort Derek instead.

When Derek finally pulled away, looking a weird mix of embarrassed, grateful and annoyed, Stiles took hold of his hand and tugged him back to sit on the bed.

"You need to tell the Ash," Stiles started but Derek shook his head.

"I've hidden it for too long," he said. "Besides if Peter found out, he'll demand her head. She's the Morrigan; it could destroy the peace between the light and dark."

Stiles watched Erica hesitate and roll the desk chair forward so that she could take Derek's other hand in her own. Derek startled for a moment and studied her. She met his gaze head on and Stiles didn't know what exactly happened but Derek relaxed again and didn't pull his hand away from her.

"Okay," Stiles said looking between the two of them but shrugging it off when neither seemed inclined to explain. "We need to do something. She can't just get away with this; who knows how many others she's used it on."

Erica looked thoughtful then spoke. "I bet she's using it to get new Fae to pick the dark. Remember her parting shot yesterday?"

Derek frowned at Stiles. "What parting shot?"

"I pretty much told her that I was choosing the light and she told me not to be so sure about that," Stiles said, remembering the way she'd given him a smirk as she said it. "That it wasn't over yet."

Derek growled, his eyes flashing, and grabbed Stiles around the back of his neck. "You're not to go near her, you hear me? You see her coming, head in the opposite direction. If she hurts you, I'll..."

"Hey!" Stiles leaned his forehead against Derek's. "I have no intention of going anywhere near her; if only because if I did I'd probably kill her and that would get me into all kinds of trouble."

Erica snorted at that but Derek still looked angry.

"I'll stay away," Stiles promised him and ran gentle hands over Derek's face and through his hair until he calmed down.

He took a deep breath and nodded to Stiles to show he was okay before turning to face Erica. "When I'm not around, don't let him out of your sight," he told her. "And call me the instant you think there may be trouble."

Stiles made an offended noise but the other two just ignored him.

"I will," Erica said. "But you have to do the same when it's just the two of you. I may not be able to wolf out, like you, but I do have some tricks up my sleeve."

Despite his annoyance that they were talking about him like he was a troublesome child, Stiles zoned out for a moment in remembrance of one of Erica's 'tricks'. He may have made some sort of whimper because, when he shook away the memory, the other two were both staring at him; Erica with a smirk and Derek with annoyance.

He cleared his throat and pointed at Derek. "You agreed to the sharing me thing, don't look at me like that. I'll probably do the exact same thing if you mentioned the forest."

This time Derek looked smug while Erica glared. Okay, that hadn't made things any better.

"I've got to go," Derek told them, standing from the bed. "I want to look into Kate's actions as Morrigan a little. Maybe I can find a pattern which we can take to the elders without Peter ripping her throat out."

"Oh, speaking of which," Stiles said, climbing to his feet as well. "I told Scott about this." He waved a hand between him and Derek and then him and Erica. "And he asked me to point out just how pissed I'll be if you kill him, Sourwolf."

Derek blinked in surprised at the new nickname and then grinned; looking more like himself than he had since Stiles had brought up the whammy thing. "Maiming's still on the table though, right?"

Before Stiles could answer, Derek pulled him in for a quick and very nice kiss before jumping out of the window.
Stiles turned around to look at Erica, who had that thoughtful expression in her eyes again.

"We should probably look into Kate too. Without going anywhere near her." She stressed the last bit as though she expected Stiles to protest; which he really wasn't going to do.

"Maybe we could talk to Allison," he mused. "Jackson too. I don't really think Jackson needed any coercion to join the dark but he may have seen something a little weird at their club hangout or whatever the hell it is they do together."

Erica nodded. "We'll have to be sneaky about it though. We can't have it getting back to the Morrigan."

"Sneaky is my middle name," Stiles proclaimed, slinking towards her in demonstration, and then promptly tripped over the pile of clothes he'd left on the floor the previous night.

Stiles called Lydia, figuring that was the easiest way to organise an impromptu get together. It turned out that she was bored out of her mind, watching Jackson and Danny play computer games or, in her words, pretending they didn't want to screw each other stupid. Danny joined in the conversation at that point and they somehow all agreed to meet at the school lacrosse field 'for old time's sake'.

Stiles was pretty sure at this point that Lydia had forgotten that he never used to hang out with them while they were at school. Or maybe not forgotten exactly, but the fact that she actually liked Stiles now meant that she'd sort of rewritten her history so that she had always been aware of Stiles and was, probably, the only one awesome enough to appreciate him.

They picked up Scott on the way and the three of them climbed up the bleachers to where Lydia and Allison were already waiting. Jackson and Danny were on the field, apparently revelling in the opportunity to play there while the school was deserted because they weren't holding back from using their powers on each other.

"Well, look at what the extremely trashy cat dragged in," Lydia said, raising an eyebrow at Erica while, at the same time, wrinkling her nose at Erica's outfit.

Erica smirked in response. "Don’t pretend you’re not jealous."

Lydia opened her mouth to snipe back but Allison had grabbed hold of Stiles' arm and dragged him down to sit next to her.

"What the hell is going on with you and Kate?" she demanded. “She’s been in a foul mood since she visited you.”

"I don't know." Stiles shrugged as if he really had no idea. "She showed up at my house, started yelling and then made some horrible comments about my mother. So I threw her out."

"You did what?" Lydia practically screeched, catching the attention of Danny and Jackson who ran over to find out what was going on.

"What was she yelling about?" Allison asked with a frown.

Stiles pretended to think about it. "She didn't like the fact that I was hanging out with light Fae and not dark."

"But you hang out with Allison just as much as us," Danny pointed out.

"Which is what led to the comments about my mom and dad," Stiles said. "Because Allison's also hanging out with Scott when she's with me."

Allison looked guilty for a moment before shaking her head. "No, that can't be what she's pissed about. She's the one who told me to ignore my parents attitude to humans and she keeps commenting on how pretty Scott is."

Scott flushed and started spluttering at that and Allison gave him a fond look before leaning forward to squeeze his hand.

"You are awfully pretty, Scott. Deal with it," Stiles told him with a cheeky wink and laughed when Scott gave him the finger.

"Yes, we all know Scott's hot but what's the Morrigan's problem if not him?" Lydia asked.

Stiles glanced at Jackson to see how he took that statement of Scott's attractiveness to find that he was too busy ogling Erica's chest to notice. That was probably what prompted Lydia to say it in the first place, judging from the glares she was throwing in his direction.

Erica, on the other hand, was oblivious to all of this because she was scowling at Danny while he backed away warily. Stiles was confused for a moment because who could hate Danny? Then he realised that Erica had also subtly manoeuvred herself so that she stood between Danny and Stiles.

Stiles covered his face with his hand; apparently it wasn't only Derek who had a problem with what had happened at the diner with Danny.

"For crying out..." he muttered before he reached out and snagged her around the waist, pulling her down onto his lap.

Everyone, except Scott, froze for a second. Watching as Erica made herself comfortable on top of Stiles as if she belonged there; which she kind of did.

Danny was the first to recover, giving Stiles a genuine smile which Stiles returned. "Anyway, back to the Morrigan. Allison? You got any ideas?"

Allison blinked and then focussed on Danny. "It has something to do with her meeting with Harris. It was just before she stormed out and went to Stiles' house."

"Harris? As in our old chemistry teacher, Harris?" Stiles asked in shock.

Although he didn't know why he was so surprised, now that he thought about it. Of course Harris was Fae and dark Fae to boot. He'd always had it in for Stiles and had a real problem with Stiles' dad; which made sense if all the dark Fae thought the same way Kate did. He wasn't buying Allison's protest that Kate really didn't think that way about human/Fae relationships.

Allison winced. "Kate's had him watching you; mainly when we were in school to see if you'd suddenly manifest powers but I think she's had him trailing you since the rave too."

"And you didn't think to mention this to me?" Stiles was incredulous.

"I didn't really think about it until yesterday," Allison told him, looking really apologetic. "The school thing, I mean. I honestly didn't know about him following you recently until I put two and two together after Kate got back home."

"So the question is what exactly did he see you doing yesterday that would get the Morrigan so mad?" Lydia asked, fixing Stiles with a pointed look.

Harris must've seen him with Derek. There was no way he could have followed them into the forest; not without Derek and his wolfy skills picking up on it but that kiss in the park...anyone seeing that would be left with no doubt that Derek had made a claim on Stiles. Which had been the point of it but that point had been meant for Erica not Kate's spy.

Erica stiffened as she also figured it out. "Shit..." she murmured quietly but everyone caught it nonetheless.

"What did you do?" Danny asked worriedly.

Stiles shook his head, ready to try and dismiss it but Lydia suddenly pointed a finger of doom at him.

"Don't even think about it, Stiles," she snapped. "You're going to tell us what happened or, I swear to god, I'm going to forward that photo of you and Danny to the Sheriff's department."

"Hey!" Danny protested but Lydia just flapped her hand at him and kept glaring at Stiles.

"It's probably the only place you haven't sent it to," Stiles muttered and Lydia gave him an evil smirk. "Okay... I think he saw me with Derek."

"Derek Hale? The Ash's nephew?" Jackson asked, looking confused at the entire conversation.

However, Danny and Lydia's eyes widened in realisation and then moved, as one, to look at Erica who was wearing an unconcerned expression. Her hand had tightened on Stiles' shoulder though and Stiles rubbed soothing circles on the small of her back, out of view of everyone else. She may have the bad ass makeover but he knew that being suddenly under the scrutiny of these people, who had ignored her for so long despite her being one of them, had her as much on edge as the subject did.

"Why would she be so annoyed at you talking to Derek?" Jackson continued and then gaped at Stiles when Stiles blushed bright red. "You're fucking Derek and newly hot Erica? Holy shit, Stilinski! You?"

Allison looked at Stiles for confirmation and let out a breath. "That explains it then. She's really weird about Derek Hale; always has been."

"Define 'weird'," Stiles said, trying to ignore the way everyone else was still staring at him. Jackson had even poked him in the shoulder as if to prove that Stiles was real and wasn't some strange hallucination he was having.

"I don't know; it's hard to explain," she replied. "Kate...she really despises the Hales but if Derek comes up in conversation she gets all...smug, I guess is the best way to describe it. But that's not right either. It's like she's happy that he's always so...miserable."

Stiles’ face obviously showed how much his temper had been rising as Allison spoke because her voice grew more and more timid.

He took a deep breath and struggled to bring himself back under control. “So when she heard that he’s been seeing me, she figured that he wasn’t miserable anymore.”

“That and the fact that she’s got a hard on for you,” Jackson put in, having apparently recovered from his shock. When everyone looked at him, he shrugged. “What? She does. She’s been gloating about there being an Incubus she can bring to the dark since she found out about him. Everyone knows that.”

“Great.” Stiles sighed.

If she’d really been talking to everyone about him then she was going to lose face when he didn’t pick the dark. It gave her even more incentive to try and get him to choose her side. He just had to hope that she wasn’t going to try and hurt Derek even more to do that; he’d been through enough.

“So why has she got it in for Derek?” Danny asked and the conversation descended into all sorts of conspiracy theories; the most ridiculous of which came from Stiles and Erica in an effort to not give away Derek’s secret.

After a while, Jackson and Danny headed back to the field to finish their game while the rest of them cheered and cat called. When they all eventually left the bleachers to head back to their respective cars, Stiles spotted a familiar black SUV parked next to his jeep.

Allison frowned when her father climbed out. “Dad? What are you doing here?”

“I can’t check up on my own daughter? See if she needs a ride home?” Chris grinned and Allison rolled her eyes. “Actually, I need to talk to Stiles if he doesn’t mind?”

Erica immediately stepped closer to Stiles but Stiles shook his head at her and walked over to Chris to talk more privately; aware of everyone’s eyes on them even though they pretended to chat amongst themselves.

“The Morrigan would like to see you again,” Chris told him. “I can give you a ride; I’m sure your friends won’t mind taking your jeep home for you.”

“No, that's not going to happen” Stiles said and crossed his arms.

Chris’ ever present creepy smile dropped in surprise. “I know you two had an argument over something yesterday but you’re not in any kind of trouble. She just wants to talk; probably apologise.”

Stiles snorted and shook his head. “The Morrigan made her feelings perfectly clear yesterday and so did I. We’ve nothing more to talk about.”

Chris took hold of Stiles’ arm and pulled him further around the SUV, glancing back at the others and lowering his voice.

“Look, I know my sister can come on a bit strong but it’s just because she has your best interests at heart. She really does believe that you’d be better served with the dark,” Chris told him. “We’re more suited for your natural Fae inclinations than the light would be; that’s why the majority of Incubi and Succubae choose our clan. Don’t let a silly argument make such an important decision for you.”

“No, because Kate wants to make that decision for me,” Stiles snapped without thinking.

He was so angry at everything he’d learned about Kate that day and now, there was Chris trying to give him a reasonable recruitment speech when there was nothing reasonable about Kate or the way Stiles suspected she ran the dark. So much for being sneaky.

“What are you talking about?” Chris narrowed his eyes.

Stiles glared right back, refusing to be intimidated even though his heart was going a mile a minute. “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about and why I’m going to be keeping my distance from your sister.”

Chris stared at him, some emotion flickering across his face but it was gone too quickly for Stiles to decipher.
Then he gave Stiles a curt nod. “I’ll pass along your apologies to the Morrigan that you’re unable to meet with her.”

Stiles frowned, a bit wrong footed by Chris’ sudden acceptance, but he nodded in return and then walked back to join his friends. They’d obviously all figured out that Stiles had refused to go with Chris to see Kate but, thankfully, restrained themselves from asking about it.

Instead Scott clapped his hands together and asked, “Pizza?”

The next couple of days passed relatively peacefully; no more summons from the Morrigan, or the Ash for that matter. It was like a proper summer vacation, apart from the fact that this summer Stiles had a lot more friends to hang out with. The days were spent at the lacrosse field or sitting lazily on the grass near the latest piece of graffiti to appear at the skate park; the one of a beautiful pocket watch that made Lydia preen every time someone came to ooh and ahh over it.

Stiles was even getting along with Jackson which was something he never thought he'd be able to say. In fact, Jackson seemed to be a little in awe of him since learning about Stiles' newly acquired sex life and constantly asked him entirely inappropriate questions before gazing thoughtfully at Lydia and Danny.

He didn't see Derek but did talk to him on the phone. Derek had enlisted Deaton's help in looking into the Morrigan, confiding what Stiles had witnessed although Stiles was pretty sure that he hadn't mentioned his own issues with Kate. Even though Deaton was officially one of the light, his role as Gama-senninn, meant that he was something of a grey area. Apparently being the only sage in town meant that he regularly helped the dark as well as the light if they needed him. Derek told Stiles that Deaton had been one of his father's best friends despite all of that and Derek completely trusted him, even when other members of the light didn't.

So far the two of them had found at least six accounts of people who had aligned with the dark only to show confusion about that decision at a later date. It wasn't enough though. If they were going to take this to the elders, they needed actual proof. This meant that Derek had to keep digging, which, in turn, meant that he was too busy to visit Stiles. It made him very frustrated and growly on the phone and Stiles almost felt sorry for Deaton having to deal with that. Mainly though, he just felt smug that he had that much of an effect on Derek.

It was on the second evening that the peace and quiet was finally shattered. The group were bowling again. Girls versus boys with Scott as score keeper because everyone, including Scott, agreed that he was so bad whatever team he was on would probably lose automatically. Stiles was just preparing for his own turn when his phone went off, the caller id showing as the Sheriff's station.

"What's up, daddy-o?" he answered, wedging the phone between his ear and shoulder as he picked up a bowling ball.

"Stiles?" It wasn't his dad; it was Marge from station's front desk. "You need to come to the station."

Stiles' stomach dropped as did the ball he'd been holding. "What's happened? My dad...is he okay? What..?"

"Just come to the station, sweetie. We'll explain everything when you get here," Marge told him. "Do you need me to send someone to pick you up?"

He shook his head, and then realised Marge couldn't see him. "No, I can drive." Stiles hung up the phone and looked at his friends, who had all frozen and were staring at him in concern. "I have to go. I think something's happened to my dad but they wouldn't tell me, just said to get to the station. And I think it's bad because Marge called me 'sweetie' when she usually calls me something far more insulting and..."

He trailed off when Erica gently took hold of his hand. "Come on, I'll drive."

Stiles shook his head but Scott stopped any protest. "Listen to her, man. You're in no state to drive right now."

Scott gave Allison a peck on the cheek and then put a hand on Stiles' back, leading him out to the jeep. Stiles was only vaguely aware of any of it. He felt numb; his mind whirring in a circle of 'Oh god, dad. Please be okay. Please let him be okay'. He'd always known that this was a possibility, that his dad had a dangerous job but he'd never actually believed that anything would happen. Somewhere deep down he'd held on to the childish and unrealistic notion that his mother had already been taken from him and the world couldn't be cruel enough to take his dad too.

Without him even registering it, they were suddenly speeding down a deserted road heading towards the Sheriff's station. Erica was driving but she had one hand clenched on Stiles' thigh, Scott was in the back and sitting forward enough to keep a hold of Stiles' shoulder as if they both expected him to shatter into a million pieces if they didn’t physically hold him together.

Suddenly there was a glaring white light out of nowhere and Stiles heard Erica scream as something impacted the side of the jeep. There was a sickening crunch of metal on metal as the jeep was shunted off the road entirely and flipped onto its side in a ditch.

Stiles lifted his head from where it had slammed into the passenger side window although it felt far heavier than normal and his face was wet. He automatically lifted his hand to wipe the wetness away and had to bite back a scream as the movement pulled as his obviously dislocated shoulder.

He heard a pained groan from behind him. Scott. Was Scott okay? Was Erica? He turned his head and in the bright light could see her slumped against his leg. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he moved his hand to rest on her back and felt a wave of relief rush over him at the movement which told him that she was still breathing.

"Stiles?" he heard Scott ask roughly from the back of the jeep.

Stiles went to answer but stopped when he realised that he could hear other voices too. From outside of the jeep. That's when he registered where the bright light that flooded the jeep's cab was coming from, another car; the one which had run into them.

No sooner had he had that realisation, a face appeared in front of him in the space where the windshield used to be.

"You still alive in there? Good, she'd be pissed if you died before she had the chance to chat with you," the face said and Stiles swore as he realised the face belonged to one of Kate's minions.

The man reached in and grabbed hold of Stiles, dragging him out through the windshield and Stiles screamed as pain exploded in his shoulder before everything went black.

When Stiles woke it was to the sight of Kate's face inches from his own. He startled and tried to scramble back from her but discovered that he couldn't move. Kate chuckled and straightened from her crouch, allowing Stiles to see that they were in a small cold room with peeling paint on the walls, empty of all furniture except for two chairs; one which Stiles was currently tied to and another one facing him.

"You know, I tried to be nice to you, Stiles. I really did," Kate said as she sat in that other chair. "Tried to show you some of the benefits of being with the dark."

"I don't think fucking you is that much of a benefit." Stiles' throat felt raw and he had to cough a few times to get the words out. "I'd probably catch something."

To his surprise, Kate threw her head back and laughed. "I always did like the feisty ones," she said ruefully, almost to herself.

"Where are Scott and Erica?" Stiles demanded.

She raised an eyebrow and looked at him in amusement. "They're really who you're worried about right now?"

Stiles' eyes widened as the pieces fell into place. "My dad! You did something to my dad!"

"There you go." She reached forward and patted his leg condescendingly. "He's fine for now. So is your little pet. My men are dealing with the girl." She waved her hand dismissively.

Stiles tried to swallow down his fear for them and glared at Kate. "What do you want?"

"Why don't we start with a little chat?" Kate leaned back on her chair and crossed her legs. "How did you figure out about my Seniatta power? I've managed to keep that secret for a very long time. Not even Chris knew, although apparently he had his suspicions until you confirmed them for him."

"I saw you use it," Stiles told her. "That day I came to your house your office door wasn't completely closed."
"And you recognised it because you've got a similar power yourself." Kate nodded thoughtfully. "Clever boy. Who else have you told besides my brother? Your little girlfriend?"

"Actually, I told my boyfriend." Stiles felt a surge of triumph as her face suddenly contorted in anger.

"Derek's mine!" she hissed. "Always has been and always will be. My own little Hale puppet to destroy. All that self loathing over our affair is beautiful to witness and I'll be damned if some snot nosed kid takes that away from me!"

"You're insane," Stiles said, staring at her in wonder. "I mean, I knew you were a little screwy but you're actually full buckets of crazy aren't you?"

Kate breathed hard as she fought to pull herself back under control. "Your little relationship with Derek won't matter soon; it'll just be another thing to torment him. You've got more pressing concerns." She stood and leaned over Stiles to whisper in his ear. “I can touch you all I want right now, Stiles. I could use my power to make you choose my clan but, after all the trouble I’ve gone to in order to get you here, where’s the fun in that? So I’ll make you a deal; choose the dark and I will let one of your humans live; your dad or your pet, it's up to you. Refuse and I'll make you kill them both before using my power to turn you into my pet."

Stiles shuddered as she licked the curve of his ear and he finally realised just how carefully orchestrated this kidnapping had been. She could've ordered her men to just grab him at any time but instead she made sure that he'd actually been hurt during it; because his body needed energy to heal and the need for that energy would make him very, very hungry.

"Bitch!" he gritted out and she laughed quietly, the vibrations moving deliciously along his skin.

"Took you long enough to notice," she murmured against him and Stiles had to close his eyes at the sensation. "You must really care about your humans if your worry was enough to block out the hunger but you feel it now, don't you? You've got one hour to tell me that you're joining the dark or I'll untie you from this chair and lock your humans in here with you until you've drained them both dry. Then I’ll make you mine and, if you’re lucky, I may even let you out of my bedroom once in a while."

With that she spun around and left the room.

Stiles cursed and struggled against the ropes holding him down to no avail. Someone had popped his shoulder back into place while he'd been unconscious but it still ached and if he pulled on it too hard, it felt like shards of glass grinding together beneath his skin. Still, struggling distracted him from his hunger. Now that it had been brought to his attention, he could feel it burning through his veins far stronger than it had ever been before, not even that first time with Derek.

His stomach tightened as he thought about Derek who would soon find out that Stiles had either chosen Kate over him or watch him follow Kate around with that dazed, uncomprehending expression of someone she'd whammied. There was no choice really; he wasn’t going to feed from his dad or Scott so he knew he had to align with the dark. And, Christ, what about Erica? She'd been alive when he'd been dragged from the car but was she still? What did Kate mean when she said Erica was being dealt with? His heart clenched at the thought of someone hurting her. She and Derek had been through so much already and now they were going to be hurt again because of him when all he really wanted was to hold them close and keep them safe.

He didn't know how long he'd been sitting there with his thoughts continuing to cycle in a way that he was pretty sure indicated a concussion of some sort. He finally raised his head when he heard someone outside the door and steeled himself to deal with Kate again. He blinked when the door opened to reveal Allison and Lydia.

"Thank god," Allison said and pulled out her phone, talking into it while Lydia ran to Stiles. "We found Stiles. He's in the basement."

"You are far more trouble than you're worth. I'm seriously reconsidering my decision to be friends with you," Lydia grumbled as she undid the knots but Stiles could hear the genuine worry beneath her words.

"The others?" Stiles asked, standing up and wincing as the blood rushed back into his limbs when the too tight ropes were removed.

Allison joined them, putting her phone back in her pocket. "Erica's fine; a little banged up and a lot frantic about you but she's okay."

Stiles slumped in relief and staggered a little.

Lydia grabbed him around the waist to keep him upright. "Jesus, Stiles. You need to feed."

Stiles waved off her concern and concentrated on what Allison was saying.

"I don't know where Scott is, he was taken from the jeep with you."

"He's here somewhere, I think," Stiles told her. "Kate said that she had him and my dad. She's holding them prisoner in order to make me pick the dark Fae."

"I don't..." Allison swallowed hard, her eyes suspiciously bright. "Why's she doing this? I don't understand."

"She's a nut job, Allison," Lydia said and then huffed when her friend frowned at her. "Look, I don't have time to sugar-coat this for you. Even your dad can see that she's gone off the rails."

"Your dad?" Stiles asked.

"I called him when we saw Kate's men drag you and Scott from the jeep," Allison answered. "He told us that you'd probably been brought here. He's really pissed at Kate."

At that point Erica and Derek came running into the room, both of them letting out sounds of relief when they spotted Stiles. Lydia managed to get out of the way just in time before they both barrelled into Stiles, wrapping their arms around him and hugging him so hard that his ribs started to protest. He didn't care though; he clung to them just as tightly.

The sound of someone clearing their throat made Stiles look up at Chris Argent who had also entered the room, along with Danny and Jackson.

"She's kidnapped my dad and she had us run off the road," he told Chris. “Still think your sister has my best interests at heart?”

“No,” Chris replied, seriously. “She’s crossed a line this time.”

“This time?” Erica asked incredulously. “You really believe that this is the first time she’s broken the laws or hurt people to get her own way?”

Stiles could feel Derek tense and rubbed a soothing hand over his back; trusting Erica to make her point without bringing Derek into it.

Chris sighed, suddenly looking tired and as if he’d aged ten years in seconds. “I...no, it’s not. I guess I just didn’t want to see it before.”

“Dad?” Allison sounded close to tears as she looked between Stiles, Erica and her father.

Chris reached out and pulled her into a hug.

“Kate inherited your grandfather’s power,” he confessed. “She’s been using them to make certain Fae she deemed as valuable choose the dark as their clan. It didn’t work on Stiles because he somehow figured it out and wouldn’t let her close enough to touch him so she’s gone for more drastic means instead.”

“What power has she inherited?” Lydia demanded to know.

“My father’s a Seniatta,” Chris said, still holding Allison tightly.

Danny swore quietly and Jackson clenched his jaw.

Lydia, however, rolled with it. “And what exactly are the more drastic means? What’s her plan now?”

“She’s given me an hour to agree to join the dark,” Stiles said. “Well it was an hour but I don’t know how long it’s been since she left. If I don’t agree to join, she’s going to kill my dad and Scott. Actually she said she was going to get me to kill them by locking them in here until I got too hungry to resist.”

There were gasps all around the room and a deep growl that came from Derek.

His eyes flashed gold and he took a threatening step towards Chris. “Either you do your job as the Morrigan’s second and stop her or I’ll do it for you. She’s deliberately taken Fae away from the light, she ordered those men of hers to kill Erica who as a member of the light Fae is under the Ash’s protection and she’s kidnapped and is threatening to kill a high profile member of the human community risking exposure for us all. The light are well within our rights to demand your sister’s head on a platter.”

“Nothing to do with the fact that Stiles is your boyfriend, of course,” Chris snapped. “This is my sister we’re talking about; I’m not going to just hand her over to you and your precious Ash.”

Derek growled even louder and Stiles quickly moved to step between him and Chris.

“We don’t have time for this,” Stiles said. “We’ve got to find my dad and Scott. We can deal with Kate when we have to.”

To his surprise, Allison pulled out of her dad’s hold and came to stand beside Stiles, looking determined.

“Kate’s out of control, dad. I’m going to help Stiles, it’s up to you whether you join us or not.” She held her dad’s gaze until he nodded.

“She’ll be holding them somewhere nearby, on this floor or the one above,” Chris told Stiles. “I don’t think Kate will know that we’re here yet but she’ll go on alert pretty soon when the men she sent to take care of Erica don’t check in. So the quicker we find them, the better our chances of getting out without anyone being hurt.”

“Okay, then we should split up,” Stiles said.

Lydia stepped forward, automatically taking charge as if she was organising another prom. “Jackson, Danny; you go with Allison and her dad to the next floor up. The rest of us will search down here. Everyone keep their phones handy; if you find anything call someone from the other group.”

After Allison’s group left the room, Lydia tugged Stiles around to face her.

“Kiss me!”

“What?” Stiles stared at her in shock. “Lydia?”

Erica immediately moved up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist; he could just about see her glaring at Lydia from over his shoulder. Derek had also started growling again.

“Oh, calm down.” Lydia rolled her eyes. “Anyone with eyes can see Stiles is crazy about the two of you but he needs to feed. Look at him, he can barely stand up straight by himself and, despite what Chris thinks, we all know that we’re not getting out of here without running into the psycho bitch. A muse’s power isn’t going to be any help here, not like the powers the rest of you have, but I can do this.”

Erica was looking bruised and battered with a nasty gash along her forehead so Stiles already knew he wasn’t going to feed from her, she needed all the energy she could to heal, and they needed Derek firing on all cylinders if they were going to face Kate. A quick glance at the other two showed that they knew it too.

“Are you sure?” he asked Lydia.

“I am,” she nodded determinedly then gave him a smirk. “And just imagine how jealous Jackson will be when he discovers both me and Danny have kissed you.”

Despite everything, Stiles chuckled at that and thankfully no one commented on the slightly hysterical note to it. He took a single step closer to Lydia, into her personal space, and then paused, checking her face for any sign that she wasn’t okay with this. Instead she lifted her head and raised an eyebrow at him in challenge.

Stiles smiled and shook his head before sliding one hand behind her head and pulling her into a deep kiss. She instantly responded, taking control of the kiss in typical Lydia fashion and Stiles spared a moment to reflect about the fact he’d dreamed of doing this for years. The reality didn’t match up to the fantasy though; not that it was a bad kiss, far from it, it was great. The problem was that there was no spark, no passion between them; not like there was with Derek and Erica.

He let Lydia have her way for a few moments and then turned the tables, dragging her body closer to his and nibbling on her bottom lip before sweeping his tongue into her mouth. Lydia stiffened in surprise and then melted into it, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding on. Stiles wanted the feeding to at least be pleasurable for her so he waited until she was entirely relaxed into the kiss before he started pulling her energy out of her. Lydia gasped and then tightened her hold on him with a low moan. He kept feeding until he could feel her start to weaken and then forced himself to break away.

Lydia stumbled slightly, her eyes dazed and lips swollen red. Stiles steadied her with a hand on her waist.

“Lydia? Are you okay?” he asked, concerned.

She blinked up at him and then turned to Erica. “After this is over, you and me are going for coffee and you’re going to tell me what else he can do.”

Erica grinned in return and Stiles rolled his eyes to cover how ridiculously pleased that comment made him.
They finally left the room with Derek and his wolfy nose in the lead. “This whole place stinks of her, it’s hard to separate where she’s been today from the rest of it.”

“It’s that god awful perfume she wears,” Lydia whispered knowledgably and Erica hummed in agreement.

Derek and Stiles just shook their heads at each other; Derek probably at their lack of understanding whereas Stiles was just worried about the fact that Erica and Lydia seemed to be bonding – that couldn’t bode well for him.

They made their way through the winding corridors, checking rooms as they went. As far as Stiles could tell they were in a disused office building, one which had fallen into semi dereliction with cracked plaster and cobwebs everywhere. As they walked, Derek murmured to Stiles, explaining that the leaders of each clan had to have a building where they could house any out of control Under Fae who couldn’t blend in with humans or to imprison any Fae who broke the laws set on them by the Elders.

“I guess abandoned offices are in because dungeons are so last year,” Stiles commented quietly and Derek snorted in amusement before he suddenly froze.

The group came to a halt and watched Derek as he crept closer to one of the closed doors. His eyes turned gold and he looked back at Stiles, nodding his head. Lydia immediately pulled out her phone to let the other group know they’d found something.

“We should wait for...” Derek started but broke off when the door suddenly opened. There was a blur of motion before Derek was thrown into the room beyond.

“Derek, sweetheart, you’ve really been letting those stealth skills of yours slip.” Stiles heard Kate say.

Sharing a quick look with the two girls, Stiles straightened his back and the three of them walked into the room to face the Morrigan.

The room was larger than the others they’d seen, although a lot dingier as if no had bothered to clean it even when the building was functional. Judging from the rusting pipes it must’ve been a boiler room before everything got ripped out. Derek was laying on the floor, looking a little dazed, with some crazy snarling Under Fae with very sharp looking teeth and a Marilyn Manson makeover standing over him. On the opposite side of the room, Kate was leaning casually against the wall observing everything with a lazy smile but what made Stiles’ heart freeze in his chest was the sight of his dad and Scott. They were kneeling on the floor just in front of Kate, gagged and bound with two men standing behind them holding knives to their throats.

“Stiles, Stiles, Stiles...” Kate tutted. “You really do like to make things more difficult don’t you? We could’ve dealt with this without involving any more Fae but you had to go and get yourself some groupies. Ones who apparently don’t care about the penalties that comes with breaking into dark Fae territory.” She swept her eyes over the small group that had arrived with Stiles. “You must be one hell of a fuck, kid.”

“Actually, they didn’t break in, Kate. They were invited.”

Kate’s eyes widened as Chris walked into the room, sword drawn. Allison was next to him, she had got a crossbow from God knows where and was pointing it directly at the man standing behind Scott.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Kate said, straightening up and placing her hands on her hips. “You switching sides on me, Chris? Do you want to be in charge that bad that you’d mutiny against your own sister?”

Chris sighed. “I don’t want to be in charge, you know that. Or you did before you went on this ridiculous power trip. Do you have any idea what you’re doing right now? What you’re risking?”

Kate laughed and moved closer to Stiles’ dad, running her fingers through his hair causing him to flinch. “Oh Chris, really. You’re worried about the Sheriff telling tales on us? He’s not leaving here alive.”

“What about our deal?” Stiles demanded, his eyes stuck on the thin trickle of blood on his father’s neck from where the flinch had pushed him further into the knife. “I choose the dark and you let them go.”

“No!” Derek shouted only to be hit viciously by the snarling Fae, smacking his head back against the floor.

“I think the deal was that I’d let one of them live,” Kate replied, ignoring Derek’s outburst and moving to run her fingers through Scott’s hair as well. “Emphasis on ‘live’, I never said I'd let them leave. We all know that you were going to choose your father but he’s committed crimes against the Fae; turning one of us from her own kind. I couldn’t let him go without punishment, so I had planned to keep him locked up here...which would also have served to keep you in line. Of course, all deals are off now, sweetie.”

“Jesus Christ, Kate! You’ve lost your mind!” Chris stared at her as if he'd never seen her before. “You’re not just risking our exposure; you’re driving us towards an all out war!”

“Oh, please!” She scoffed. “Did you really not pay attention to all those lessons when we were kids? Dad will be so disappointed that you’ve forgotten. Nobody wants a war, Chris! So we make concessions and compromises; deals between the light and dark and all it’s done is made us soft. Well, I’m not soft and I’m going to bring the dark back to where it should be. All I need is a little more power, a little more and I’ll be in line to become an Elder. Then I can make some real changes.”

“And taking sole credit for bringing an Incubus to the dark will give you that little bit more power,” Stiles said flatly as he understood his role in all of this at last.

Kate beamed at him proudly as if he’d just won some sort of prize and that was when Stiles noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. While all of Kate’s attention was on him and Chris, the others had started very slowly creeping closer to Kate from both directions. Or, more importantly, closer to Scott and Stiles’ dad.

Stiles didn’t look at them, didn’t want to draw Kate’s attention to it. Instead he looked at his dad while Chris tried to talk Kate down. His face was a mixture of anger, fear and confusion but he was alive and alert and staring back at Stiles; which Stiles could work with. He held his dad’s gaze for a long moment before deliberately flicking his eyes to one side. His dad frowned and quickly glanced in the same direction, his face clearing as he also registered the people sidling around the sides of the room towards him. Anyone else looking would have missed the change but Stiles knew his dad and he could see the subtle shift of muscles which indicated he was ready to jump into action when the time came.

He tuned back into Chris and Kate’s argument in time to hear Chris ‘refuse to take part in this madness’. Stiles had to resist the urge to smack his forehead because, seriously, hadn’t the guy ever watched a movie? That ran a close second to ‘you’ll never get away with this’ in just the wrong thing to say to the bad guy.

So Stiles wasn’t exactly surprised to see Kate sneer at Chris and yell, “Enough! I’m the Morrigan; either do what I say or face the consequences!”

A sword materialised in her hand and she spun it once before taking up a fighting stance.

Chris tightened his grip on his own sword and shook his head sadly. “I can’t follow you on this. It’s wrong, Kate.”
“Fine!” She spat. “Stiles, you’ve got one last chance.”

“To help you become some sort of evil overlord of the Fae? Go fuck yourself!” Stiles told her, praying that his dad, at least, would get out of this mess.

She turned her head slightly to look at the men standing behind Scott and Stiles’ dad. “Kill them!”

As if those were the magic words, everything happened at once. Danny began to whistle loudly and at such a high pitch that, for a moment, Stiles felt like his brain was leaking out of his ears. When the noise stopped and Stiles could straighten out of the protective crouch he’d fallen into, he watched Allison shoot an arrow into the dazed man standing behind Scott. At the same time, Jackson opened his mouth and shot a gob of, what had to be venom, into the eyes of the man standing behind Stiles’ dad. Both men fell back screaming in pain allowing Stiles’ dad to throw all his weight to one side, barrelling into Scott, and knocking them both flat to the ground.

On the other side of the room, Erica had jumped onto the back of the Under Fae guarding Derek and was holding on for dear life as the Under Fae tried to throw her off in some twisted version of a bucking bronco. The distraction allowed Derek to completely shift into his wolf form and pounce at the Under Fae from the front with a blood curdling roar.

Stiles ran to his dad and Scott, with Lydia hot on his heels. They both set about untying them, throwing the ropes to Allison, Danny and Jackson who were holding down Kate’s men.

“Are you okay?” Stiles asked, running his hands frantically over his dad, checking for injuries.

His dad batted his hands away and pulled Stiles into a hug. “I’m fine, son. Just some cuts and bruises, I’m fine, really.”

Stiles nodded into his chest, so relieved that, for once in his life, he couldn’t speak. He pulled back out of the hug and quickly turned to check the rest of them.

Scott was in the middle of his own ‘thank god you’re alive’ bear hug with Allison. Danny and Lydia were literally sitting on top of the, now restrained, minions with Jackson standing next to them. Derek and Erica had between them managed to knock out the Under Fae and Erica was sitting in a collapsed heap on the floor, stroking the fur of wolfy Derek. And everyone was watching the epic battle being waged in the middle of the room between Kate and Chris.

The room echoed with the sound of their swords clashing and the graceful movements as they ducked and spun around each other would be almost beautiful in different circumstances. In these ones, however, it was clear that Chris was losing. He already had a jagged cut down one bicep and was heavily favouring his left leg. Kate had her crazy spurring her on, throwing her all into the fight whereas Chris was obviously holding back, fighting to subdue rather than slay.

“She’s going to kill him,” Allison whispered brokenly, her hand straying towards her crossbow clearly planning on taking Kate out first.

Stiles couldn’t let her do that. He couldn’t sit there and watch someone as sweet as Allison try to kill a member of her own family to save another; it would destroy her. Instead he took the crossbow out of her hands and put it back on the floor, shaking his head at her as he stood up.

“No, Stiles.” His dad grabbed his sleeve to pull him back to the ground.

“I have to, dad,” Stiles told him. “I know what I’m doing, trust me.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Erica and wolfy Derek go on alert as Stiles walked closer to the duelling pair in the middle of the room, ready to jump in if Stiles needed them. He made sure to keep behind Kate, swaying and sidestepping with her to keep out of range of her sword, moving ever closer until he could reach out and touch her.

“Stop fighting and kiss me,” he instructed in a firm voice, watching the familiar gold glow leave his hand and move into Kate’s neck.

The reaction was instantaneous; her sword clattered loudly to the ground as Kate spun around and hauled Stiles into a rough kiss. Stiles didn’t bother to wait until she was relaxed, he didn’t care if this was painful for her or not, he just pulled her energy from her body as hard as he could. He could feel the point where he’d taken enough, could feel her start to weaken but he just kept going; swallowing down the blue energy until her legs gave way, until he felt a hand on his shoulder and heard a voice telling him to stop.

Breaking off the kiss, Stiles stumbled back and watched Kate slump to the ground, unconscious but still alive. He felt shaky and nauseated from the overload of energy beneath his skin but familiar arms encircled him from behind and he relaxed into Derek, more exhausted than he could remember being. Erica moved to stand in front of him and put her hands on his face, siphoning away as much of the excess energy as she could.

“That’s the second time I’ve watched you kiss someone else today,” Derek said lowly into his ear. “You’d better believe that you’re going to make that up to me.”

“To me as well,” Erica added before she brushed a soft kiss across Stiles’ lips.

“You’ll have to give me some time to recover first.” Stiles chuckled tiredly then sighed. “Just how horrified is my dad looking right now?”

Sure, his dad had seen enough that day to know about the Fae and probably picked up enough to know that Stiles was one. But that was a lot different than actually witnessing his son feed on another person. Stiles wasn’t sure he could stand it if his dad turned away from him because of it.

“He’s looking pretty shocked but not horrified,” Derek told him.

Stiles took a deep breath and forced himself to peer over at his dad who was looking from Kate to Stiles and back again. Finally he studied the way Derek and Erica were both embracing Stiles and met Stiles eyes with a raised eyebrow. It was pretty much at that point that Stiles realised Derek was still naked from his wolf shifting, something which hadn’t passed anyone else’s notice judging from the blatant ogling coming from Lydia, Allison and Danny. Even Jackson kept stealing glances.

“So...on a scale of one to ten, how much trouble am I in?” Stiles asked after he’d extricated himself from the cuddle pile and walked over to his dad.

His dad sighed and raked his hands through his hair. “I just...why didn’t you tell me when your powers manifested. I could have helped somehow.”

Stiles gaped at him. “You knew? You knew about the Fae...about me?”

“Of course, I knew about the Fae,” his dad answered with a small smile. “Do you really think your mom would’ve hidden that from me?”

It was all too much. Kate, the car crash, the worrying, the guilt over lying to his dad to find out he already knew...it all came crashing over him and Stiles suddenly couldn’t breathe. He felt himself being pulled forward, his dad’s hands rubbing circles on his back as Stiles’ head rested on his shoulder.

“Breathe, son. Come on, slow and deep, you’re okay...” was being whispered into his ear over and over until Stiles managed to get control again, breathing in time with the movement of his dad’s chest. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. After your mother died...I just didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t understand enough about any of this to know where to even begin. Then when you grew and didn’t show any signs of anything out of the ordinary I thought maybe your mom had been wrong, that you weren’t Fae just because your parents had been. Jesus, I should’ve known better.”

“Because she was never wrong,” Stiles murmured and his dad gave a weak huff of laughter at what he’d always claimed was Stiles’ mom’s catchphrase.

“She’d be so proud of you, Stiles,” his dad said. “I’m proud of you.”

Stiles tightened his hold on his dad for a moment, squeezing once before pulling away.

He turned to look at Chris. “What happens now?”

“I’ll have to inform the Elders of what happened and I’m sure there’ll be some sort of inquiry into everything Kate has done since becoming Morrigan.” Chris sighed and looked at his sister’s unconscious form. “As her second, I’ll be taking over the territory for now and she’ll be locked up until the Elders decide what to do with her.”

Stiles nodded, unsure what to say.

Chris approached his dad, holding out a hand. “Sheriff, I sincerely apologise for what you’ve been through today. I know that you’ll want to continue to keep our secret for Stiles’ sake so if you need any help with your reports...witnesses, that sort of thing, we do have people in positions of power that could help you.”

Stiles’ dad gave Chris a look that showed how unimpressed he was at the underlying threat in that statement.

“I’ll bear that in mind, Mr Argent, and I trust that your people will desist from harassing me and my son.” He waited until Chris nodded. “Alright then, I’m going to take my son and his girlfriend home and discuss why he also appears to have a boyfriend. Speaking of which, Derek? I expect you to join us for dinner tomorrow night so don’t think that you’re missing out on us having a little chat.”

Stiles groaned and glared at anyone who was laughing at that which, of course, turned out to be all his friends.
The sun was already up when the three of them finally got home. They’d had to call at the station first to call off the search for the Sheriff...and his son seeing as the jeep had been found totalled at the side of the road. Stiles stared in awe as he watched his dad weave the most bullshit story Stiles had ever heard into something entirely believable. Seriously, it involved drunken frat boys, a dare, some crazy coincidences; at one point Stiles was pretty sure his dad uttered the words ‘wild animal attack’.

Over breakfast, Stiles and Erica explained to his dad everything that had happened lately; the type of Fae they each were, the truth about Erica’s mom, Derek, Kate’s escalating craziness. Everything. Then his dad told them all about Stiles’ mom; how she’d told him about herself and the Fae on the night Stiles’ dad had proposed.

Finally Erica caught Stiles up on what had happened after the car crash. Apparently, the group they’d left at the bowling alley had decided to follow them to the station as some show of support for Stiles. They’d seen the jeep shunted off the road and Allison had recognised Kate’s men dragging Stiles and Scott from the wreckage. Once the other car had driven away, they had all run to the jeep and Danny and Jackson had taken out the remaining men with their powers while the girls pulled Erica free. Then Erica had phoned Derek, Allison had phoned her dad and they’d all headed straight to the office building Chris had told them about.

All three of them were physically and emotionally exhausted by the time they talked themselves out and Stiles’ dad didn’t even say a word when Erica followed Stiles into his room to sleep; probably because they were so tired that he knew sleeping was all they would be doing. They both fell onto the bed without even removing their clothes and Stiles wrapped his arms around Erica, thankful that he still got to do so, before they both fell into a much needed sleep.

Derek came to dinner that night as ordered and it wasn’t as excruciating as Stiles had expected. Sure, his dad did the whole ‘I own a gun so you’d better not hurt my son’ routine but he followed it up by handing Derek a beer with a grin.

Stiles was pretty sure that his dad had reservations about the whole two relationships thing that Stiles had found himself in but he was trying to roll with it and Stiles just wanted to hug him for that. It couldn’t be easy coping with the fact that your son had to have sex in order to stop him from killing innocent people but he loved and trusted Stiles and so was making a real effort to get to know Derek as well as he'd come to know Erica. He even went as far as to invite Derek to watch a baseball game with him later in the week.

Stiles thought that it probably helped that his dad believed he, Derek and Erica were being 'very responsible' about the situation they'd found themselves in. Something which made Stiles feel simultaneously happy about the praise and made him want to squirm because he’d never wanted to discuss this much of his sex life with his dad. Also, he was positive that his dad would've had a different opinion if he'd seen the Stiles tug-of-war that Erica and Derek had been taking part in before Kate finally went completely off her rocker.

The weird thing was that they didn't appear to be so bothered about that anymore. Whether it was the joint worry over Stiles when he was kidnapped or they had bonded somehow over the mutual taking down of that Under Fae, Derek and Erica were actually getting along. They still snarked at each other throughout the meal but this time it had an undercurrent of teasing and genuine amusement; especially once they realised how much they were freaking Stiles out with their behaviour.

With all the craziness that had been going on, Stiles had completely forgotten that his twelve days were up. At least until the next morning when his dad yelled up the stairs that he had visitors. Stiles, expecting it to be one of his friends, barrelled down the stairs only to pull up straight at the sight of the Ash's assistant and Deaton standing in the living room.

"It's time to give your decision to the clan leaders," the woman said without any pleasantries. "We have a car waiting to take you to the mansion."

"You're kidding me, right?" Stiles said. "Now?"

The woman nodded impassively but Deaton gave him a sympathetic look.

"The Ash and the former Morrigan agreed on the date and it's immovable, Stiles," Deaton explained. "Everyone's already gathering to hear your choice."

Stiles gave a sigh and nodded. "Alright, let's get it over with then."

He moved towards the door but the woman put her hand out to stop him. "Miss Reyes and Sheriff Stilinski's presence is also required."

Even Deaton looked surprised at that.

"Why do I need to be there?" Stiles' dad asked. "I'm not Fae."

It was only at that point that Stiles realized they were openly discussing Fae matters in front of his dad, which meant that everyone was now fully aware that his dad was in on the secret.

"We're aware of that, Sheriff, but news about the events of two nights ago is spreading quickly," the woman told him. "The Ash would like the chance to discuss them with you."

And probably give the same thinly veiled threat that Chris had, Stiles added mentally.

His dad nodded his agreement and twenty minutes later they were all walking into the Great Hall of Hale Mansion. Stiles was surprised to see that all his friends were among the crowd of people in the room. Even Scott was standing in the middle of a Lydia, Danny and Derek huddle on what was obviously the light Fae side of the room before they prodded him forward to stand beside Stiles.

"Dude, you can't answer your phone?" Scott hissed at him and Stiles shrugged apologetically.

"It was destroyed in the crash; I was going to get a new one later today," he explained quietly. "What are you doing here?"

"Lydia and Danny came to get me," Scott replied, looking very uncomfortable. "They said your claimed human has to be present for this."

"I'm sorry, Scott," Stiles said, thinking that he needed to do something really nice for Scott to make up for all the Fae shit he'd had to deal with in the past few days.

He was stopped from saying anything else by the appearance of Peter and Chris. Chris looked really pissed off but, considering that his sister's actions were about to be aired in front of, what looked like, all of the local Fae, that was to be expected.

Peter's assistant indicated that Stiles and Scott were to walk towards the raised platform and Deaton took Erica by the arm to lead her over to join the light Fae. His dad followed Peter's assistant to stand at the back of the room and wait until Peter had time to talk with him.

Lydia, Danny and Erica gave Stiles encouraging smiles as he walked forward while Allison gave him the thumbs up from the dark Fae side, nudging Jackson until he rolled his eyes and nodded at Stiles.

"Before Mr Stilinski gives us his choice of clan," Peter said to the room, garnering quiet chuckles from the majority of light Fae who were apparently in no doubt that Stiles was choosing them. "I would like to formally thank him and his fellow young Fae, my own nephew included, for their actions of two nights ago. If it wasn't for their bravery the old Morrigan would still be breaking our highest and most revered laws; committing crimes against all Fae both light and dark."

There was enthusiastic applause from the light side of the room, a far less enthusiastic smattering of claps from the dark side of the room and Chris' face flushed with anger.

Peter smiled down at Stiles. "Now, Mr Stilinski. If you would please join us up here so that you can declare your choice of..."

"Actually, I think that something else needs to be brought up first," Chris interrupted with a malicious smirk at Peter. "Why don't you explain to Stiles exactly why you had his dad brought here today?"

Peter glared. "It's to discuss his exposure to our world at the hands of your sister and his wife before her."

"And after this discussion?" Chris prompted and then laughed when Peter refused to answer.

Stiles felt ice flow down his spine as he realised just what Chris was getting at.

"Answer the question, what were you going to do?" Stiles asked Peter angrily.

"Stiles," Peter said in what he must've thought was a sympathetic tone but actually just sounded condescending. "There are rules that we all must abide by, even me. Your father is the town Sheriff, he holds a position that could hurt us all if he should choose to make waves."

"He's not going to 'make waves'. He's known about the Fae for over eighteen years and hasn't done anything to hurt you," Stiles pointed out.

"I can't take the risk that he won't change his mind," Peter said, as if that settled the matter.

He nodded to a group of Fae to one side of him and they began walking towards Stiles' dad but Derek moved to stand in front of him, shielding him and growling threateningly at the group. He was immediately joined by Erica with Lydia, Danny, Allison and Jackson close on her heels.

Chris grinned smugly. "Not so amusing when the 'brave young Fae' are rebelling against you is it, Ash?"

Stiles was barely paying him any attention though; he was too busy glaring at Peter, so angry that he was shaking. "So, what was your plan? Wait until I chose the light and then you thought you could just order me to hand over my dad to be killed? Jesus, you guys are just as bad as each other. You know what? I don't choose either side!"

There were gasps from all over the room.

"You can't do that," Peter told him, looking astounded.

"Watch me!" Stiles turned his back on Peter and walked to the group protecting his dad who were all staring at him with varying expressions of shock.

"Stiles, what are you doing?" Scott murmured as he ran after him but Stiles just shook his head at him; he had no idea, he was just so sick of all this.

"It won't change anything," Peter called after him. "We still have to neutralise your father and you're just putting you and your claimed human in danger. The Elders won't stand for an unaligned Fae."

Stiles momentarily closed his eyes in defeat only to startle a little when a hand landed on his shoulder. Deaton had appeared at his side and he gave Stiles a reassuring smile before lifting his head towards Peter.

"I claim Sheriff Stilinski and take full responsibility for him and his actions," Deaton said in a firm voice.
"What?!" Peter and Chris both exclaimed.

"No, I'm not going to be claimed so that you can control my so..." Stiles' dad started but Derek put a hand on his arm to stop him and then leaned in close to whisper something in his ear.

Whatever Derek was saying caused his Stiles' dad's eyes to widen in surprise. He looked from Derek to Deaton to Stiles and then back to Deaton before he exhaled loudly and gave Deaton a nod.

"Deaton?" Stiles looked at the sage in confusion.

"Trust me, Stiles," Deaton told him quietly before raising his voice again. "As I was saying, I claim the Sheriff."

When Stiles risked a glance back at the platform, Peter looked furious.

"Fine," he gritted out. "But Stiles still needs to pick a side."

"He already has," Deaton replied benignly. "He obviously chose his father and seeing as his father is my human that means we have enough control over him to satisfy the Elders."

"You have enough control, you mean," Chris interjected.

"And you should know by now that I'm not the type of man to abuse such power," Deaton chided him. "Now, I believe we're all done here."

Peter huffed angrily but addressed the crowd. "The Sheriff has been claimed by the Gama-senninn and Mr Stilinski remains unaligned. This meeting is concluded."

The people in the room began to leave, all muttering to each other in discontent and confusion and shooting glances at Stiles.

"What the hell just happened?" Jackson asked.

Stiles shook his head while watching his dad, Derek and Deaton move to one side, deep in conversation. "I have absolutely no idea."

"I can't believe you refused to choose a clan," Danny said. "I've never heard of anyone doing that before."

"It doesn't mean that he can't align at a later date," Allison pointed out. "Plus, this way we've all got an excuse to hang out together, because we're all friends with Stiles and he is straddling the line between the two sides. I know my parents can't have been the only ones pressuring me to stop seeing friends from the other clan."

Jackson and Danny both nodded at that whereas Lydia and Erica shrugged because their parents didn’t care.

“You know what this means, right?” Lydia asked. “It means that Stiles is going to be famous and, as his very good friends, so will we.”

Everyone chuckled at that, everyone except Stiles who had just spotted Peter heading towards his dad, Derek and Deaton.

“I thought you’d agreed to stay out of the way we run the clans,” Stiles heard Peter say to Deaton as Stiles slowly made his way closer to them.

“I wouldn’t have had to if you and Kate hadn’t made such a mess of this situation,” Deaton replied, coolly. “An Incubus in our territory and you both manage to drive him away from your clans. In fact you’re lucky he didn’t just decide to leave the territory all together.”

“I was obeying the laws,” Peter growled, his eyes flashing the same way Derek’s did.

“No, you were showing off,” Deaton said. “Waiting until he chose the light before going after the Sheriff? That was so everyone could see the power you held over an Incubus; it had nothing to do with the laws. You should watch your step, Peter, we don’t want you going the same way as Kate.”

With one last growl at Deaton, Peter stormed out of the room.

Deaton turned and looked at Stiles, nodding his head to the door to indicate that Stiles should walk out with him.

“You don’t need to worry about your dad,” Deaton started as they made their way through the corridors. “The claim is purely for his protection, the same as your claim on Scott is. You have my word that I won’t suddenly start ordering him around and I’ll never treat him as a pet; I have enough of those to deal with at the clinic.”

Stiles nodded, letting out a sigh of relief.

“I also won’t be trying to control you through him,” Deaton continued, “I lost my taste for petty politics a long time ago.”

“So why do it at all?” Stiles couldn’t help but ask.

Deaton smiled. “I think you’ve got a bright future ahead of you, Stiles, I think you’ll be good for us. Also, you make Derek happy and I’ve been worried about him for a long while now.”

Stiles remembered what Derek had said about Deaton and his father’s friendship and smiled his understanding. They had just about reached the main entrance when Stiles stopped Deaton with a hand on his arm.

He leaned in with a lowered voice. “Peter said that you’d agreed to stay out of running the clans; which kind of implies that you could have some say over them.” Stiles paused and then decided to just ask. “Are you an Elder?”

Deaton grinned and walked out of the door, calling back over his shoulder, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Stiles stood there a few moments, staring after Deaton, before he finally chuckled to himself.

“What’s so funny?” Erica asked from behind him and Stiles spun around to see the others walking down the corridor towards him.

“It’s nothing,” he told her as they caught up to him. “Just general Fae craziness.”

“There’s a lot of that going around,” his dad grumbled. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this but I think I’m going to find work pretty relaxing tonight after all of this.”

Everyone laughed as they walked outside. Stiles stopped when he noticed Chris leaning on a wall waiting.

“I’ll catch you up,” he told the group and strolled over to Chris. “You planned all this, didn’t you? You knew what the Ash was going to do and you tried to show him up in a last ditch effort to get me to choose the dark.”

“Turned out not to be a last ditch effort though, did it?” Chris smirked. “It looks like I’ll have lots more opportunities. I’ve got to give it to you, kid; I didn’t expect you to refuse both clans.”

“I like to keep people on their toes,” Stiles snarked back and Chris just laughed.

“You definitely do that,” he agreed. “Here.”

He tossed a set of keys to Stiles who caught them and looked at Chris in confusion. “What’s this?”

“The dark Fae pay their debts, Stiles. Kate totalled your jeep so we owed you a new car,” Chris told him. “Allison and Jackson persuaded me that you’d like this particular one.”

Chris’ lips twitched in amusement as he nodded his head to the other side of the parking lot. Stiles turned around to be greeted by the sight of his friends leaning against a brand new jeep painted in the brightest shade of pink Stiles had ever seen.

Even Stiles’ dad burst out laughing at the look of horror Stiles knew was on his face. Jackson and Danny high-fived each other, Scott and Erica were actually hanging onto each other in an effort not to fall over while Lydia and Allison draped themselves over the hood in what they probably thought was an enticing manner but was completely spoiled by the amount of giggling they were doing.

“No, no,” Stiles spun back to Chris. “I appreciate the gesture, really, but I’m fine without a car. What’s wrong with walking everywhere? It’ll be good for me; cardio and all that positive stuff.”

“The papers are in the glove compartment, all in your name,” Chris told him. “Enjoy your new car, Stiles.”

With that, he walked to his own, black and normal looking, car and drove away.

“Come on, Stiles, we want to see what you look like behind the wheel,” Lydia shouted, her phone already in hand for photo taking opportunities.

“I hate you all,” Stiles told them as he stomped to his new pink monstrosity.

“Admit it, you quite like the jeep really,” Erica whispered into his ear later that night.

Stiles’ dad had gone back to work, point blank refusing Stiles’ offer to give him a ride to the station, and Stiles and Erica were on Stiles’ bed lazily making out.

Stiles refused to admit anything and any growing affection he may have for his new car was purely down to the fact that it drove like a dream. Nothing else.

Erica gave him a knowing look anyway and rolled off him to stretch against the bedcovers like a cat. “Well, if you’re not going to admit it then I’m going to insist that we actually watch this movie you promised me.”

Stiles looked from her to the movie cued up on his computer, just waiting for them to press play. “Really?”

“Yep,” Erica nodded. “Also, I’m going to make you get the popcorn...unless you want to give in and tell me you like the jeep, Malibu Barbie.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes at her challenging expression. “Oh, we’re going to watch the movie, alright. We’re going to watch the hell out of that movie and there will be no touching until we’re done and I’m going to stop talking right now before I say anything else stupid.”

He ran down the stairs to the sound of her laughter and grinned to himself as he shoved the popcorn into the microwave. While that was doing it’s thing, he gathered some chips and grabbed a bottle of soda. He lugged the whole lot back up stairs and then proceeded to drop it all on the floor when he saw what was waiting for him in the bedroom.

Or rather who was waiting for him. Namely Erica and Derek. Both under the bedcovers while all their clothes lay in a pile on the floor.

“So, me and Derek have been talking,” Erica said when all Stiles did was gape at them for five whole minutes. “This Stiles time share idea isn’t really working for us. Why spend all that time being jealous of what the other one is doing with you when we could all be doing it together?”

Stiles opened and closed his mouth a couple of times but no sound came out.

“I think we broke him,” Derek commented to Erica.

“Are you serious?” Stiles finally managed to say. “Please tell me you’re serious because if you’re not this is a really mean trick to play on me.”

“We’re serious,” Derek assured him. “We both want you and it turns out that we quite like each other too.”

“Quite like?” Erica asked, smacking Derek on the arm and earning herself a smile from him. “I’m not giving it up for someone who quite likes me. I have it on very good authority that I’m 'kind of awesome' and...”

Derek stopped her from talking the same way he liked to shut Stiles up, by pulling her into a kiss. She wrapped her arms around him and responded enthusiastically.

“Christ,” Stiles breathed. “You two are so fucking hot!”

They broke apart and grinned at each other then Derek held his hand out for Stiles to join them. He stumbled forward, stepping on the dropped bag of chips which exploded beneath his foot and kicking the soda bottle, sending it spinning under the bed, but he barely noticed.

As soon as he reached the bed, Erica pulled him down on top of her. Her hand cool on the back of his neck even as her mouth was warm and welcoming. Stiles felt Derek kneel over them, pushing up the back of Stiles’ t shirt so that he could kiss his way up Stiles’ spine; licking and sucking over each vertebra in a way that made Stiles shiver.

“You are wearing too many clothes,” Erica murmured against Stiles’ lips.

“S’not my fault. You two got a head start,” Stiles complained and Erica nipped his bottom lip.

She pushed him up and got to work on undoing his pants while Derek helped him pull his t-shirt off. Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles’ waist pulling him back against him and started nuzzling Stiles’ neck. Stiles groaned loudly as Erica pushed his jeans down as far as she could and wrapped her fingers around him, stroking lightly.

Derek chuckled against his ear. “Love the sounds you make.”

Erica gave Stiles a cheeky grin and slipped her other hand behind Stiles to wrap around Derek too. At the low growl Derek gave, Stiles and Erica laughed.

“You don’t sound too bad either,” Erica commented with a smirk.

Derek pushed Stiles forward until he could reach Erica and kissed her over Stiles’ shoulder. At the same time, Stiles brought his hands up to cup her breasts, rubbing his thumbs over her nipples to make her squirm against him and whine into Derek’s mouth. Stiles kicked his pants off the rest of the way and shimmied down the bed enough that he could take one of her nipples into his mouth and moved his hand lower, down over her belly until he was touching her, circling his finger in that way he knew she liked. One of Derek’s hands suddenly joined his and they both pushed her higher and higher until she shuddered apart beneath them.

She fell back against the pillows, flushed and panting. “You two...want to watch...”

Derek didn’t even let Erica finish before he rolled to lie beside her, pulling Stiles down on top of him, devouring his mouth. Stiles shifted a little until he fit between Derek’s legs and they both let out a groan as they slid against each other. Derek’s hands swept over Stiles’ back possessively and Stiles shivered as he watched Erica slide her hand under a pillow to bring out a bottle of lube and a couple of condoms. They really had planned this.

She grabbed Derek’s hand and poured some of the lube over his fingers, leaning over to give him a quick kiss before she pulled Stiles into a deeper kiss. Stiles groaned both from the kiss and the feel of Derek’s fingers on him, in him; both of them slowly driving him out of his mind.

Eventually he pulled away from Erica.

“Ready...I’m ready, please...” he gasped and there was a burst of activity until Stiles found himself kneeling over Erica, her legs gripping his hips, with Derek draped over his back.

Slowly Derek pushed into Stiles which, in turn, pushed Stiles into Erica. He cried out from the duel sensations of Erica’s heat gripping him and the delicious friction of Derek filling him. When Derek bottomed out Stiles had to stop and rest his head on Erica’s shoulder, breathing hard and trying to get some control but Derek circled his hips causing both Stiles and Erica to gasp.

They quickly fell into rhythm with each other; Erica arching up, Derek pushing down and Stiles between them just hanging on and enjoying the ride. The air was filled with soft cries and muttered curses until their movements started to get a little erratic. At that point, Stiles felt a familiar tugging in his abdomen, felt Derek moan against his neck and forced his eyes open to watch the blue and violet energy swirling in the air above them. Derek’s hands tightened on Stiles’ hips, hard enough to bruise, and Stiles knew what he wanted so reached his arm back to pull him into a kiss. He pulled a little energy from Derek, not enough to feed but enough that Derek would feel it. At the same time, Erica sent the swirling energy shooting back into all three of them and Stiles’ world exploded in bright white light.

Stiles panted into Erica’s shoulder when they all collapsed on their sides, still wrapped around each other. “We’re doing that again, right? This wasn’t a one off?”

“Oh, we’re definitely doing that again,” Erica assured him and Derek nodded against the back of his neck.

“So, this is happening now? The three of us together instead of two separate couples?” Stiles asked, wanting to be sure that they were all on the same page.

“That’s the plan,” Derek said, tightening his arm around Stiles’ waist and stretching his other beneath Erica's head.

It had been the craziest couple of weeks of Stiles' life, possibly in the history of ever, but right at that moment Stiles' heart felt full to bursting and he couldn't bring himself to regret a single bit of it.

He smiled sleepily and cuddled closer to his two lovers, “We’re gonna need a bigger bed.”