Chapter Text
‘Ok, pack meeting’s over’, Derek said from the center of the room. They were in the old Hale house, you know, the one in the middle of the woods, the one that burned down. Except now, Peter and Derek are working on renovating it. Cause that’s a thing that’s happening.
They were all here, which was nice. Well, everyone who was left alive. Derek, Peter, Isaac, Scott (sans Allison, who moved to Washington for the summer), Lydia (sans Jackson, who was forced by his parents to move to New York, forever), Stiles (sulking on the couch, wondering how his friends are coping with all the loss in their lives, when all he wants to do is curl up into a ball and possibly cry or die, either one will do, really) and Erica. This was the first pack meeting with Erica, after she returned. The Alpha pack didn’t really hurt her, per say. But, from what Stiles could gather, they did torture her for the couple of weeks they kept her. Not physical torture, Argent-style, but emotional torture. Which definitely was worse. The Alpha pack did kill Boyd. They tortured and hurt him and in the end, they sliced him in half. In front of Erica. Then, they let her go. ‘Run back to your precious Alpha, blondie. Tell him to be afraid.’ And she crawled back to Derek, her Alpha, crying and apologizing and explaining. And missing Boyd. And of course Derek did the right thing, of course he let her back in his pack.
That’s what Derek does, you see . The right thing. Most of the time, at least. Derek is…
Oh yeah. Derek. Who wasn’t talking anymore. ‘Wait!’, Stiles said once he stopped his train of thought. ‘I… Uhm. I have to tell you guys something. ‘. Of course, everybody looked annoyed. And Derek rolled his eyes.
‘Ugh, guys. I promise this is important. Really important. Not just to me, to everyone. Ok? Please? Can I get five minutes of your precious time?’, Stiles explained, arms flying everywhere and anxiety kicking in.
‘Go on, Stiles. Your heart’s beating like crazy, this must be important’, Derek said, with that smug half-smile on his face, the one that drove Stiles crazy.
But this was no time for that. He had to focus. ‘Ok, so…’. Stiles looked around the room, taking in everyone’s strange looks. This was going to be hard. But he had to do it.
‘I’ve been lying to you. For some time now. There’s a good reason for it, I assure you. It was awful, it felt horrible, but I had to do it. But now… Now things are better, I… uh… I’m better. I have more control. And you guys need to know.’
Stiles kept looking down. It was easy to look down, avoiding any of their looks. And, honestly now, this new floor that the Hales had installed, it was a pretty nice floor.
‘What the Hell are you on about?’, Derek asked, impatiently.
Right. Back to reality, Stiles.
‘Right. So. Uhm. You guys remember the rave a couple of months back? Yeah? The kanima, Jackson, Matt, that whole thing?’
‘Of course we do’, Scott said in a cheerful way that made Stiles feel better. God bless his best friend and the huge heart he has.
‘Yeah, and… uhm. Remember how I made a circle of mountain ash around the whole building?’
‘Yeah, we couldn’t get out of it’, Isaac said from the couch, where he was staring at the ceiling and holding Erica tight.
‘Yes, exactly. I made a complete closed circle and no supernatural-type creatures could get in our out.’
‘Yes, yes, congratulations. You did something! Is there a reason we are discussing this now?’, Derek asked impatiently. Stiles could tell he was annoying him.
‘The thing is, Derek…’, Stiles looked right into the werewolf’s eyes, ‘you weren’t there. Nobody was there. You see, I didn’t have enough. There were 10 feet left and I didn’t have enough mountain ash to close the circle.’
‘I…’ Scott mumbled. ‘You left me a voice message. You said you were out, you were freaking out. I always wanted to ask you about that, but I always forget’.
‘Yeah. And I remembered what Deaton told me. Before, when we were getting the ash. He said that I was the only one who could do this specific task, and that if I wanted to succeed, I had to believe. And that’s what I did. I stopped freaking out, I took a breath, I pictured it happening…’. Stiles took a long breath. ‘And it happened. The mountain ash circle was closed, even though I didn’t physically have enough of it.’
Stiles decided this was the right time to look up. He looked over the room, at his friends. Everyone looked confused; Isaac was looking at him like he thought he was insane, Scott looked like a lost puppy and Derek… He was just staring as Stiles, face expression-less. Which was good, at least he wasn’t mad.
Stiles left out a soft chuckle.
‘Thing is, though. That’s not it. After everything that happened, after Alpha-Peter (no, he did not look at Peter at this point, no, nope, such a beautiful floor), after Kate, Jackson and the kanima, the pool, Matt, Gerard’s basement… I was curious. And I wanted to not feel that useless ever again.’
Stiles could hear Erica crying. He was sorry for mentioning it, now. Because that’s where it all started for her, in Gerard’s basement, with Stiles unable to help her and Boyd. But he can’t do this now. Focus, Stiles. You have to tell them.
‘So. I went to Deaton. And, well… Mountain ash isn’t the only thing I can do. I mean… ‘, Stiles started to talk faster. ‘It’s not that I’m a wizard or anything, haha, apparently those don’t exist in real life. Yeah, pffft, who knew? Anyway. I need objects. Things. Palpable things. And I still kinda suck at it, I’m still learning. I’m a fast learner, though. And I’m controlling it. And Deaton’s a great teacher. Cause, yeah, I’ve been seeing him a couple of times a week for these mini-training sessions? Yeah, let’s call them that. I didn’t want to tell you because I wanted to be sure it was real. And … uhm. To be honest, I’m still not convinced. I might just wake up any time now and realize I was just having very vivid dreams and…’
‘STILES!’, Derek screamed. ‘What the actual hell are you talking about?’
At that point, Stiles looked up. He looked right in the Alphas eyes. And smiled. Derek look startled, and honestly, why is that? Isn’t Stiles allowed to smile in the presence of werewolves? WEIRDO ALPHA.
Stiles grabbed a set of colored papers from the back pocket of his jeans. They weren’t that big, he made them so they’d fit in every pair of pants he owned. He looked at them, thinking how he should do this next. ‘Eh, what the hell? I’ll show you.’. He walked towards Erica, handing her the stack of colors. ‘Pick one.’. The girl considered it for a few seconds, and then she took the red piece out of the stack. She smiled when she handed it to Stiles. He couldn’t look at her, why did she have to choose the red one?
Stiles moved back to the center of the room, at a good enough distance from all of them. At this point, Isaac, Scott and Lydia looked bored. Peter looked freakishly happy, but nothing about the older wolf’s reactions surprised Stiles anymore. Derek and Erica looked curious. And the girl looked a bit scared, but that a permanent mixture in her personality after the Alpha hostage situation.
Stiles took a deep breath as he tore out a little piece of the red paper and stacked them all back in his back pocket. ‘This is gonna be a shocker. I’m not gonna hurt you’, the human said staring at Derek. ‘Any of you.’.
And then, Stiles closed his eyes. He did what he did many times again, at Deaton’s. This was different, though. This was the pack. Good god, Stiles needed to concentrate and keep his shit together, this must work out perfectly. He was holding the little piece of paper in his right hand. He looked at it, blew a small amount of air into it, and them he closed his eyes. And imagined it.
When he opened his eyes, everybody was staring. Of course they were, because now Stiles was levitating a ball of fire in his right hand, like it was nothing. He played with it a bit, for the show. Cause this was a show, wasn’t it? The coming out party? Ha.
Stiles threw the ball up and down and wiggled his fingers as the fireball changed shape. He kept looking at it, because it was a beautiful sight. Most people don’t usually get to see this; don’t get to levitate a small fireball that doesn’t burn them. But Stiles did. He couldn’t take his eyes off it. But, in all fairness, that was because he couldn’t look at his friends and alpha.
After a few minutes, he blew at the ball again, watching it disappear. Stiles snapped his fingers and looked around. Everyone was shocked. Their friends were all staring at him like he was… an abomination. (And honestly guys, don’t judge, you’re all creatures of the supernatural). Except Peter, of course. He was smiling and… if Stiles didn’t know any better, there was a hint of… Was Peter proud of Stiles? Hm. It doesn’t really matter.
What matters is that none of his friends were afraid of him. Or so it seemed. Stiles smiled, and finally gave in and looked at Derek. Who was terrified? Shit, why did she choose the red paper?
‘What are you?’, Derek asked. Stiles could see the fear in the werewolf’s eyes. But he couldn’t hear it, all he heard was determination. Because, right now, Derek was thinking and analyzing if Stiles was a threat to his pack. That didn’t hurt at all. Nope. Not all all. He’ll have to prove that he isn’t, though. Again.
‘I’m… here to help, Derek.’ Stiles said, smiling a litle.
‘How?’. And wow, the alpha looked pissed now. Shit. Hold yourself together, Stiles.
‘Fire isn’t the only thing I can do. See?’ Stiles pulled out the papers again. ‘Light blue is for wind and general weather-stuff, dark blue is for water, green is for, well, nature. Then we have purple, which is for wolfsbane, grey for mountain ash and black for a combination of those two’. He put the papers back in his pocket. ‘I can’t do anything without them, though. Yes, it’s all about believing it can happen, but I need objects. Like, at the rave, I needed the mountain ash, in physical form. I don’t anymore, a little piece of colored paper and its meaning to me is enough. Also, I can’t do a lot. Not yet, at least that’s what Deaton says. Uhm.’. He looked up. Straight into Derek’s killer gaze.
‘I’m… not using it for evil or anything, I swear. I’m a superhero, ok? Not a villain.’. He could hear Scott’s smirk and thank god for his best friend, cause Stiles really needed to hear that now. ‘It’s for protecting. Myself and you, my friends, and my dad. I… I can’t find myself as helpless as I was in that basement. Not again, not ever. And I really hope you guys understand that.’.
Peter was the one to break the silence, while Stiles and Derek had their normal staring contest that occurred every time after important information was shared. ‘I really was getting impatient.’ At that, Derek snapped his neck and look at his uncle. The older man just smiled.
‘Yeah’, Stiles started, ‘of course you know. I’m not surprised, not really. And I kinda understand why you didn’t tell me. You’re still a jerk, though.’
‘Aw, you hurt my feelings.’
‘Pffft. Yeah. Right. So. Do you care to explain or should I?’
‘Go ahead’, Peter said that all knowing smile that made Stiles want to kick the man in the face.
‘Well. It’s genetic. Apparently… my mom had it. Whatever it is. Deaton calls it an ability. Let’s go with that for the sake of explaining. Mom had the same abilities as I did. Of course, she was stronger because she was trained for years, since she was a kid. But, she couldn’t do that with me… because of obvious reasons (and no, Stiles’ voice did not crack, no, not at all, nope, his voice never cracks when he talks him mom). And. The most interesting part about this whole mess of a soap opera is that… Apparently, people call us helpers. We are supposed to help other supernatural beings. From what I gather, we’re supposed to help the good guys and only with defending themselves, not with attacks.’
The boy took a break from talking; he needed to remember how to breathe. That’s when Peter put a hand on his shoulder and said ‘She truly was an amazing woman, Stiles’. There it is, that smile again. One day, stiles WILL punch Peter in the face.
‘What?’, Derek asked. And god damn it, why did he sound so hurt? This isn’t the reaction he was supposed to have.
‘Yeah, mom helped your family. Pack. Well. She was supposed to. You know how Deaton was an advisor to the Hales? It seems that every pack needs to have an advisor and a helper. And a mage and a vampire, but I’m still not convinced Deaton wasn’t telling me that just for laughs. Anyway … well, my mom was your helper. Dad doesn’t know anything about it; he believes she was just friends with your mother, trading recopies and what not. And, when she died… I guess your parents didn’t find a replacement for her. If they did, then maybe…’.
Stiles couldn’t finish that sentence.