i'm 147 pounds of pale skin and fragile bones

We were not lost from the start.

2014-12-31T08:13:00Z

Time's never gone real fast for Stiles in Darrow, but the winter had been slower. Everything had gone so well for so long that it had all just become another routine. Like home, but weirder. School, work, money, food, friends. The occasional inexplicable weirdness, but it wouldn't be his life without any of that, right?

But winter came and things got weird. He hasn't been able to shake the melancholy when his dad disappeared - even if he knew it might happen - and the holidays were strange. Time with your friends is great. Time with your family is better, and his family... yeah. He's sort of resigned himself to the idea that people can just disappear, and hoping that they're still okay... wherever they go... but it's different when it's your dad. Harder to just accept and let go. Especially during the holidays.

Add onto that that Derek's been freakishly absent, and the holidays just weren't quite the same. Things had been intense, but going from where they had been, living in an apartment together to whatever this has been hasn't quite gone like he'd thought it would. Stiles thinks of it as Derek going native. Darrow's crazy enough for "living in the forest as a wolf" or whatever to be considered native, right?

Things had gotten too intense too fast for Stiles, so he'd asked, through an entirely incomprehensible set of ramblings, if Derek would be okay if they "took it easy." Which devolved into "needing a break." Which devolved into "...or you know, something." Derek had been understanding; he'd gotten the bottom line: Stiles had needed space. It had made Stiles feel entirely too young, but whether or not he'd realized it, it had been time he'd needed, and he'd cleared his head. But either way, there'd been enough missing from the holiday for Stiles to know that it had been enough. Things had gotten quiet - quiet in the apartment, quiet in this weird space that he really didn't know that Derek's considerably-less-surly-than-before self had filled. And he hadn't liked it. It had actually majorly, entirely, completely sucked.

So he's here now, wandering into the edge of the freaking woods with his hands in his pockets like a freaking idiot. It's not like Derek gave him a map of where he's staying, and Stiles isn't even really sure if it's a house, or like. An actual wolf den.

"Derek?" He doesn't say it loudly. If Derek's around, he'll hear.

This is familiar, in a weird and stupid way. He half expects Derek to pop out of the shadows and glare at him.

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myonlydefense @ 2014-12-05T19:15:00

2014-12-06T03:27:46Z

The last time that Stiles thought about getting a job was before he'd ended up in Darrow. And in his head? All of the jobs were awesome. Movie theater attendant (free movies!), Gamestop clerk (~~free~~ slightly cheaper video games!), and all of that. None of it had ever happened, but his job at Gutters definitely was up there. He's surrounded by comic books all day - what could possibly be better for a first job?

...but when you're current on all the series you're reading and your friends aren't working, things tend to drag. He's already shelved all of the go-backs, made sure the junior high kids filtering in at the end of the school day didn't do too much damage... hell, he's even cleaned off the display case. With actual Windex. He's out of things to do, and he's always told himself that he was going to cut down on personal stuff at work - he's gunning for a manager position, after all - but god, he's bored, and could use a friend to talk to. Naturally, he texts Scott.

He's a little too excited when he hears the bell over the front door ring - especially since, the first time, it's just a mom looking for an issue of Superpower Guy - but he's visibly relieved when he finally sees Scott come in.

"Oh, thank god. I was dying."

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November 7, 2014: Vandalizing these walls only if they could talk.

2014-11-06T05:30:47Z

Homeroom. Stiles skips it more often than he should, even though he's been cautioned several times by several interested parties against doing so. It's homeroom in his senior year at a school where college applications seem like a waste of time more than anything, and he's not too worried about whether or not he gets into Barton, so why bother, right? He'd rather sleep in for that extra hour, so he does. More often than he should.

He can't skip every class, though - his dad would find out eventually, and he's not going to mess up dad's career for an extra day off - so he's walking up to the front door of school when everyone disappears. Like, actually disappears.

( cut for length. )

There are electronics shops and clothing stores all over, and it's not like working at Gutters makes a lot of money. It's tempting, but of all the things he wants to be in life (a superhero, an astronaut, Indiana Jones), a looter isn't one of them. All the same, there are places he wants to check out, and the Hive is one of the first ones he can think of. It isn't that far from the school (a mere couple miles, as they'd so cheerfully reminded him), so he heads to the alley behind the shop armed with his backpack and a couple of paperclips.

He has no idea what he's doing (beyond what he read on the internet about how to pick a lock), but no time like the present, he guesses. If he finds nothing but a bunch of bees and honey, well. He had an adventure.

After checking over his shoulder out of sheer habit and paranoia, he kneels down and starts to work the lock.

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August 15, 2014: You'll never know what hit you, won't see me closing in.

2014-10-22T22:47:58Z

Stiles hasn't been sleeping well - he thinks he's probably gotten about ten hours in half as many days - and what he'd been hoping was some weird Darrow thing is proving to be something a lot more persistent, and a lot more personal. It's all been scary and he isn't hiding any of from his friends anymore, but he's not letting them worry. He's not sleeping well, but he's sure it'll pass. He wakes up screaming, but it's just a nightmare. He loses time in class, finds himself fighting to stay here and not in his head, but really, he's fine.

'Fine' can only last for so long, though, and after spending more time than he should locked up in some of the darker parts of the library, he isn't any closer to an answer to his problem than he is to figuring out any of the mysteries on his wall. He needs help, and Hermione's dealt with her fair share of mysteries and freaky weirdness, right?

So he texts her, because he doesn't trust his big freaking mouth: Hey! Got some weird questions and a puff who misses her mom. You got an hour to kill at the park with me?

It doesn't even sound like him, but it still feels better than any of the alarmist things he wants to send.

Stiles likes the park. It's one of the few places in the city that he sort of forgets he's in a city, where he can pretend he's just at some nameless park in California. He practices lacrosse badly here, loses chess games to Seth's old friend Moishe, and just... is.

It's comfortable. Or, at least, it makes him comfortable, sometimes, and he needs that right now, however false the security. He tries to focus on that, sitting on the lawn and watching some kid splash around in the lake while playing intermittently with Nermal and his phone. If he waves a little too happily or smiles a bit too brightly when Hermione approaches, it's probably because he's a little out of practice at both. His nerves are shot.

"Hey!" He sets his pet down and stands up, letting out an anxious breath. "You, uh. You weren't busy, were you?"

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August 8, 2014: I crept into your heart, you can't make me disappear.

2014-08-28T19:57:49Z

( Teen Wolf 3x13 spoilers. )

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myonlydefense @ 2014-06-29T16:40:00

2014-06-30T00:42:45Z

"I'm just saying, you know, what with my experience with firearms, maybe I don't have to start on something real small," Stiles is saying as they pull into the parking lot of the range, sitting in the passenger seat and jiggling his leg up and down. Okay, so he doesn't have any direct experience with firearms, but his dad was the sheriff - that has to process via osmosis or something, right?

It's weird, not living with his dad anymore when he's only a couple floors away, but at the same time, it's kind of nice. It's not that they don't see each other anymore on a regular basis or anything, but he appreciates the time he gets with him now more than he used to. It's all easier now, too, now that he doesn't have to hide anything.

The car's put into park and he peers behind him into the back seat where the extra gun is, then back at Al with an unmistakably woeful look. "What about a shotgun? You use shotguns, right?"

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June 2, 2014: Woke up on the right side of the bed.

2014-05-31T23:33:20Z

Everyone's been reassuring him: this is only temporary. Stiles can't decide if he's happy about it or if it's the worst news of his life.

He's wanted to be a superhero since he was old enough to understand what one was. Sure, later in life he begrudged being the metaphorical Robin to Scott's Batman all the time, but he'd take being a sidekick over being a bystander any day. And now, he can actually do it.

So he doesn't have web shooters or a cool costume; that much he'll leave to the professionals. All the same, waking up able to crawl on walls and possessing unnatural athletic and gymnastic talents? After all the Spider-Man comics that Stiles read as a kid, it seems like a crime not to use the powers in and of itself.

Great responsibility and all that.

But he'd be remiss to have all of these powers and not to show Hermione. She knows as well as anyone how much he hates being the literal kind of powerless, and he knows that she'll indulge him if he decides to show her how he can hang on the ceiling now like it's entirely new and unusual around here. He shoots her a text to make sure she's around, and then heads over... probably faster than is proper decorum, but hey. He's excited.

He bounces on the balls of his feet, hands shoved into his pockets to hold back any unnecessary flailing, and waits.

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June 2, 2014: Does whatever a Stiles can.

2014-05-31T22:38:36Z

"Peter!"

There are probably better ways to go about this.

"Hey, Peter, are you home?"

Stiles can count the number of times that he's actually hung out with Peter Parker on one hand. They met at Steve's birthday party forever ago, and while Stiles had given him the head nod and made idle conversation about absolutely nothing every chance he's gotten at school, that's not... quite the same level of personal connection that he probably needs to be pounding on his door like this.

Not that he's pounding. It's more like a knock. A really insistent, excessively persistent knock.

He woke up sticking to... well, just about anything and everything he touched. He can crawl up the wall, in fact (he knows, he tried), and he knows that that those weights he lifted at the gym didn't magically give him the muscles he's always dreamed of. Obviously, whatever is going on is thanks to Darrow, but that doesn't mean he can't run to the first person he can think of with wallcrawling abilities and ask him what the actual hell.

What he's expecting, he's not sure. He probably shouldn't even be going to Peter about this, since he technically doesn't know anything about anything that Peter may or may not be able to do. But his options are limited, so here he is.

"Oh god, please be home."

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June 2, 2014: I'm leaving my cage on the ground.

2014-05-28T05:47:30Z

So, Stiles' morning starts kind of weird.

Well, maybe it doesn't start all that weird. He wakes up starfished across Derek's enormous bed, his limbs half tangled in the sheets, half hanging over the edge of the bed, foot actually trailing on the ground. He's talked to Derek before about how he's probably not the best cuddler for this exact reason, but he's working on it and... uh, probably going to get better. Eventually.

The storm last night had also been kind of weird, but the light streaming through the windows and hitting Stiles squarely in the face says that it's all passed, and it's enough to get him to wake him up. Rubbing his eyes on the sleeve of his t-shirt, he yawns, sitting up and letting his back hit the headboard while he reaches over to shake Derek in the shoulder.

Or he would, anyway, if he could get the sheet to stop sticking to his hand.

"The hell?" He'd been pushing the sheet off of his chest, and now it's... well, yeah. Sticking. A few quick shakes don't seem to do anything, and he stops pulling the instant he hears a crisp, tearing sound of fabric, but that's a second too late, the fabric ripping fantastically before it finally comes loose. His eyes go wide before they flick over to Derek to see if he's woken him up, and he's at a loss.

This is no reason to panic. He's not growing fangs or bleeding from the eyes or having a heart attack. He just... seems to be slightly sticky. Or velcro-y.

"Derek?" He hesitates, then reaches out to tap Derek's shoulder with a finger that sticks to him like a post-it before he's able to pull it back. "Hey, Derek. Are you up?"

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myonlydefense @ 2014-02-05T13:36:00

2014-02-05T22:19:59Z

Stiles has been coming to work right after school lately. The extra money is nice, and the job is pretty low key; he can get his school work done (if he's in the mood, and he's usually not), has plenty of time to read Darrow's sad, sad excuse for Reddit, and even finishes all the things he's actually paid to do.

All the same, it gets hard to fill the hours sometimes, and when he isn't busy, he gets restless and kind of destructive (he's apologized to their boss about the Quinjet model three times now), so today he makes a stop by the pizza place and the closest Redbox before heading in. There's no customers around, so he puts down a large pizza, liter of soda, and the movies on the counter, hopping over it and tilting his head back toward the break room.

"Yo! I've got pizza and a couple really awful looking straight-to-DVDs up front."

God, he hopes Seth is working today. Everyone else that they work with reminds him of Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Or Rain Man.

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talk like an open book; sign me up.

2014-01-13T20:19:06Z

So, asking Derek out didn't instantly change things. There weren't any sudden makeout sessions behind the bleachers, holding hands, going awkwardly to dances, or any of that normal teenage... stuff. In fact, life for Stiles has gone on pretty much the same way it has since he came to Darrow - uneventfully. Yeah, he shares an apartment with Derek, but that's not new, and the only thing new there is that he can comment on how good Derek's butt looking without it being like... a thing.

Well, it's still a thing. But not the same kind of thing. Like, he doesn't have to worry about being given a weird look. ...okay, he still has to worry about that.

But it's been a rough year for both of them, so they'd talked and decided that yeah, slow was okay. Around the holidays, it's more than a little obvious to them both that the absence of their families is going to take a grueling toll on them, so adding one more odd relationship o the mix doesn't seem like the best idea. They're both okay with it.

And Stiles isn't even a little twitchy about this Date Thing that's looming over his head, that has to be good, because he asked out Derek. Derek, who probably went to super nice restaurants with super hot girls and is now going to be going... with him. Most likely to Darrow's equivalent of Olive Garden. ...okay, so he did a bit better than that.

Unless you count this really awkward thing he did once with this girl, Heather, that he'd known since he was literally in diapers, this is Stiles' first real date. And dates are hard enough to get ready for, you know? Preparing for a date when you both live in the same space is kind of crazy. He can't nervously shout to his roommate about what to wear, or ask if his hair looks okay, and hell, he can't even pick his date up at the door.

Well. He kind of can.

Derek's door is shut, and now that Stiles thinks about it, he'll probably take longer than Stiles to get ready. So there's a good chance that Derek is totally unprepared... but Stiles is antsy as hell, so he decides to take that chance. He knocks on Derek's door in the only nice clothes he has - a blue collared shirt, khakis, and dress shoes that he bought for interviews - and takes a breath, rocking back on his heels.

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myonlydefense @ 2013-11-17T14:06:00

2013-11-17T22:45:51Z

The party is fun, but there comes a point when even Stiles' seemingly boundless energy hits a wall and he has to admit defeat. It comes around one in the morning, earlier than normal because the swigs he's taken of Derek's werewolf everclear poison whatever has him sleepy.

He's working off a couple of drinks, no longer entirely drunk but definitely warm and happy. He and Derek have stuck together for most of the night, particularly because Stiles is the one who dragged the werewolf here, so he doesn't have to look far to find him, sidling up next to him and bumping their shoulders. Derek doesn't even look annoyed when he looks over at him, and Stiles gives him a crooked smile. "Hey, I think I'm gonna head back..."

Not that Derek has to come with him. Just because they share a place doesn't mean Derek's going home when he does. That'd be weird, right?

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Teachers leave them kids alone.

2013-09-25T04:53:49Z

"Uggggggghhhhhhhhh," Stiles groans, announcing the irritation to Derek and his formerly empty apartment. It's finally the end of his first week at Darrow High, and frankly, he wouldn't hate it if it were his last. He actually misses BHHS. Who knew that that was a thing?

The bookbag gets dumped unceremoniously by the door, nearly blocking it, and he goes to the kitchen to noisily make himself a snack before he heads to his room. He carefully sets down the plated sandwich on his nightstand, then falls face first onto the bed and repeats:

"Ugggggggggggggggggggggh." Thank god Derek isn't home.

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last days of summer.

2013-09-02T21:58:14Z

Most of the time when Stiles heads out to the boardwalk, it's not for the waves, or the sand, or sunbathing. And actually, never that last one, because being tan isn't a thing that he really does. But he does like food, though, and there's this one hot dog cart that parks at the end of the pier? Oh my god.

He's spent some time with the cheap, rigged games and is heading toward the food to buy a couple dogs for himself and to bring home to Derek when he sees a familiar face . "Summer, hey!" He reaches up and waves with the hand that isn't likely to spill relish everywhere. He trips a little on his flip flops as he walks, offering cotton candy as a greeting.

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Team sports for one.

2013-07-08T03:33:46Z

Derek's gone doing wolfy things, and barely a couple hours into his day, Stiles realizes how weird it is. Not just not being around him - it's not like they're attached at the hip - but not even being able to.

It's kind of lonely, but when he thinks about it that way, he feels dependent and clingy, so he tries not to think about it again.

After dicking around on his computer, eating the last of the Honey Smacks he bought, and cleaning out some old, useless research he'd had in his apartment, he heads out to the park with his backpack, snacks, and lacrosse equipment that he bought when money rolled around this month. He's been spending less time inside, but there are only so many times that you can take a walk without getting bored out of your mind, so he's taken to hanging around the park.

He finds one of the quieter corners of the enormous park, close to some trees that he can fling the ball at, and sets everything up. He warms his shoulders up instead, making a couple lazy shots before rolling his shoulders and gearing up.

I said no wolf powers!

He pushes any thoughts of home back and just aims for a knot on the tree in front of him.

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Hardcore B&E.

2013-06-14T18:46:16Z

Stiles has decided that he doesn't care how much shit Derek gives him. Having the apartment above his is awesome.

He pops through the open window from the fire escape and grins, satisfied with himself as he wanders through the empty bedroom and out to the hallway toward the living room and kitchen, not even bothering to call out since he knows Derek can hear him.

"Hey, big guy. Whatcha doooooin'?" He hops up on the counter like he didn't just break and enter (well, enter, anyway) entirely uninvited and grins over at Derek. They've decided that a few days' break from walking the border was warranted, and Stiles actually has felt pretty good about the time off.

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Wakeup call.

2013-06-09T06:22:26Z

Having more than five bucks to spend in a day is a luxury that Stiles celebrates by buying a pie, ice cream, and coffee - all of which he brings back to Derek's apartment on Friday night with a proud smile on his face. ("I come bearing the foods of the gods!!") It's almost a great idea, except Stiles chugs the coffee before he goes back up to his apartment for the night and passes out almost immediately. He's not used to so much excitement.

All that caffeine messes with his sleep, though, and he wakes up around six, too hopped up to go back to sleep. So, he putzes around the apartment with his usual research and some more casual internet surfing for a while, keeping an eye on the clock. Around eight, he finally puts his ear to the floor like he can hear Derek below him... which, surprise, he can't.

Naturally, he figures the best solution is to talk through the floor, face practically pressed to the clean new carpet while he hisses out an overly loud whisper. "Derek! Hey Derek. Are you up?" This is so much better than texting.

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