Chapter Text
It took two weeks of healing before the Sheriff was willing to let Stiles out of the house. Two weeks of sleep and boredom once he was no longer dropping in on dreamland constantly. Two weeks of his father giving him sad looks and tiredly asking him once again how he really got hurt. Stiles didn’t have the heart to explain that he was more upset over his soul mate being an ass than the beating he had taken. His dad had been too distracted to remember his timer was set to go off and Stiles wasn’t looking forward to the ‘I am more than an acquaintance with Derek Hale’ talk they would have to have.
Of course, it had taken him much less time than that to realize that Derek Hale was a lying liar who lies, and only a few days after that to get proof. Erica had been making regular trips to check on him; she was evil enough that there had been no hesitation before asking his medicated self what had happened with his soul mate. Apparently after an hour of intense comfort cuddling to calm him down, Erica had stormed off to go chew out Derek. Stiles still hadn’t gotten the whole story from her, but he had managed to find out that Derek had smelt sad and guilty with a heart beating so erratically that there was no way that he was being honest about any of his comments.
Now that he wasn’t hurt and medicated Stiles could remember the red flags he would have otherwise caught, signs that Derek was bullshitting him. Stiles had saved Derek’s ass several times, and while he was no help on the physical front he had managed to be a great help when it came to planning or research. Derek had even admitted as much on occasion.
There was no more Alpha pack, he now knew who he needed to build a new ten year ‘make them fall in love with me’ plan around, and Erica had reported that Harris was out with the flu, so Stiles’ first day back at school would pass with no detentions. Life wasn’t great, but it rarely was and he was still around so overall Stiles was satisfied with it.
Of course, nothing had prepared him to walk into Beacon High and promptly have all eyes turn to him as conversations stopped.
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Uneasy, but unwilling to show it, Stiles moved through the hectic lunch room before sitting at an empty table. He smiled and nodded as he met people’s eyes, once again wondering why he hadn’t been able to find Scott yet. Stiles had seen his best friend’s bike locked up out front, he had to be around somewhere.
The intensity of the stares were almost enough to send him running out of the room, but the school nurse had a tendency of calling parents when one of their kids had a panic attack and Stiles didn’t need to give his dad another reason to worry.
People’s stares had never bothered him by themselves; it was always what was attached to them that caused problems for him. He still felt the familiar weight of an entire town’s pity on occasion, one of the unfortunate memories associated with his mother’s death. Stile had gotten hurt, but that was not uncommon and it certainly wasn’t anything to earn himself this kind of reaction. Besides, Scott had promised to spread an awesome tale of him fighting ninjas in the preserve. Determined not to give into the urge to run and hide, Stiles moved his eyes to his food concentrating on eating while making himself seem as small as possible. If they couldn’t see him then they couldn’t talk about him.
It was only the clatter of a tray and another body settling beside him that had Stiles jerk his head up. Erica was making herself at home, shoulder pressed against his, a comforting presence against the waves of anxiety rolling through him. Isaac and Boyd were right behind her, sliding into place across from them only a moment later.
“What’s going on?” Stiles couldn’t keep himself from asking, he had all three of Derek’s leather puppies surrounding him, something was seriously wrong.
Erica flinched, lowering her eyes briefly before nodding to herself and meeting his eyes. “I’m sorry. I was just so disappointed in Derek, I didn’t even think to check if the other where around and if what happened needed to be a secret. Isaac and Boyd heard.”
There she hesitated, eyes attempting to wander across the table from them, before steeling herself, “Isaac casually mentioned it to Scott yesterday.”
The fork in his hand suddenly weighed a ton; slowly Stiles lowered it to his tray, fighting down the instant urge he had to panic. Sure, he had avoided telling Scott that Derek was his soul mate, but that was more because he had just wanted to hang out and have fun every time his best friend had made it over… Right?
“He didn’t take it well.” This time she couldn’t keep her eyes up as her voice practically fell to a whisper. “They were by Scott’s locker and everyone was heading for lunch so a bunch of people heard. The whole school has been talking about it since.”
The floor dropped out from under him, breath turning sharp as the room lost focus around him. There was a harsh sound echoing in his ears, as his head felt lighter and lighter. Grey bled into the edges of his sight, chest heaving as he struggled to simply breathe. Someone was going to tell his dad and his dad was going to shoot Derek then come home and make even more sad eyes at Stiles. Plus, now his best friend knew what he had been keeping a secret from him and if Scott had started yelling about it at school then it was no surprise he hadn’t seen the other teen. It was all he could think about, his dad finding out and Scott being angry; that and the fact that he really needed to start breathing again soon.
A sharp pain in his hand gave Stiles enough awareness to listen to the soft voice murmuring into his ear, and feel the chest raising and falling against him. Stiles had to follow the chest, breath in when it breathed and exhale when it did. It only took about ten minutes for him to become aware enough to notice that besides Erica curled and pressed around his left side, Isaac had reached out under the table with his legs to hold one of Stiles’ own as Boyd sat at attention, his glare forcing the room to ignoring their table.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Stiles.” The Isaac across from him looked more like the kid constantly getting the shit kicked out of him than the cocky beta wolf Stiles had become familiar with. “I thought he knew, you two talk about everything, and I just – I am so sorry.”
The blonde continued his apologies, working himself to the point of near tears before Stiles had himself together enough to reassure him. “Hey, it’s alright.” Stiles let his eyes fall trying to draw more energy back into himself before continuing. “We do share everything, you couldn’t have known. Besides, it’s not too bad now that I know what their deal is.” The words failed to come anywhere near as reassuring as Stiles had intended but the truth in them must have registered since Isaac stopped looking quite as sad. It kept Stiles from saying ‘I’ll just have to make sure I get to my dad first’ out loud.
Still it repeated in his head throughout the rest of their lunch period; taking most of his concentration despite all of Erica and Isaac’s attempts to distract him. In a way, Stiles was grateful the bell that signaled they were done, sad only that it meant leaving the only oasis of support he’d had all day. As if sensing his mood, all three of the betas made sure to touch him before separating to head to their own classes. Sighing, Stiles took a deep breath before turning down the corridor to his locker, one quick stop and he could go back to trying to distract himself with school work.
The problem with going to his locker meant that once again Stiles was on display for the gossiping masses of his school. Of course, now that he knew exactly why everyone was side-eying him well Stiles could always try the owning it method. After all the attention was because his soulmate was Derek Hale, a man who had once been accused of being a murderer, but was also pretty smoking hot. He could do this, could hold his head up high and strut because look at what he bagged… would bag.
Pasting a cocky smirk on his face, Stiles swung his backpack onto his shoulder and turned to JUMP THREE FEET IN THE AIR because damn it Lydia, how are you stealthy in three foot heels?
“There you are. I’ve been looking for you all day.” Only Lydia Martin could manage an unimpressed look intense enough to make you feel bad for not doing something you didn’t even know you were supposed to be doing. Luckily, she had chosen to ignore the small, completely unnoticeable, shout and said nothing as he put himself back together.
“Lydia, what can I do for you?” Closing his locker Stiles tried to use the moment to put his game face back on, cocky and proud - ‘I nabbed a greek god bitches’.
Lydia’s eyes narrowed momentarily, clearly not impressed with his act, before turning and seamlessly linking her arm with one of his before starting down the hall. Clearly somebody was determined that all of Stiles’ coping mechanisms would be turned into confused flails today.
“So, I was thinking Saturday morning. If we leave early enough we’ll beat the biggest shopping crowds and leave plenty of time for any evening plans,” Lydia was matter of fact, confidently striding down the hall with her head held high, never once slowing in consideration for his surprise because she knew no one would ever do anything to make Lydia stumble. “Besides, Jackson has Danny so I should have you.”
“Jackson has…? Lydia, what?” Stiles was honestly completely confused, it was like they were midway into a conversation he had never been at the start of.
“Stiles, I picked you to be my new best friend because unlike most of this high school’s population you can be intelligent at times. This is clearly not one of those times, please get over it quickly.” It was phrased as a request, but the tone of her voice told him exactly what he needed to be doing. “You have a werewolf boyfriend; I have a werewolf boyfriend. I’m a genius; you are the only threat towards my valedictorian status. I have an incredible fashion sense; you should burn all of your clothes. It’s meant to be.”
It’s meant to be? Stiles let out a confused squeak as she turned him down another hallway, students parting to make way for the both of them.
“Maybe we can double? Jackson is joining the pack now; it would be a good way to get to know the two of you better. ” The glint in her eye suggested she had more than a little to do with Jackson’s decision, but there was something in the way she carefully had her armed wrapped around his own recently healed one that suggested there might be more than calculated werewolf power play behind her actions. Lydia Martin cared about what happened to Stiles. He had been there for her when Jackson had gone through his whole douche ‘Something weird is going on with me so I’m going to separate myself from you’ stage, the post-Peter’s bite crazy days, and helped get her to Jackson before he bit the dust Kanima style- so maybe Stiles had actually found a way into the cold heart Lydia claimed to possess. He’d be crowing if he didn’t know that friendship was all he would ever want from this girl now that he knew about Derek.
“Maybe?” His answer earned him a glare and Stiles fumbled to fix it. “Derek and I are still…” Avoiding each other, need to visit therapy… “Working it out.”
Lydia came to stop, eyes quickly flickering over Stiles, coming to a conclusion before arching a brow and continuing on, “It will probably be a while before we can fit the two of you into our date calendar, but I think bowling would be a great idea.”
God bless Lydia Martin, she was made of sunshine and rainbows. Stiles was only able to nod his head and get out a quick “Sure” before she was talking again.
“Text me later.” And with a twirl Lydia disappeared into her classroom, leaving him still mildly confused and more than a little unsure of where he was and if he could get to his next class on time. Great, this was just what he needed on top of…
They weren’t talking about him anymore. Every eye that he had clearly felt was now focused elsewhere, voices rising to their normal levels as people found something more interesting to talk about. Stiles’ body twitched as he tried not to give into the urge to celebrate in the middle of the hallway. Fucking perfect Lydia Martin and her queen bee ways, Stiles wasn’t sure if her acceptance of him had told people there wasn’t anything more to be found out or if they were all too terrified to fuck with someone under her wing. They were definitely going shopping Saturday.