[fanfiction] I Accidentally Found the Fandom for my Band and All I Got was BNF Status

[kisforkurama]

I Accidentally Found the Fandom for my Band and All I Got was BNF Status

There are huge, life-changing moments that are easily identifiable as a moment where everything is going to change. Stiles' dad kneeling down and holding Stiles by the shoulders and saying your mother is dead, son was one, just like Scott's mother slamming the door and saying well, I guess it's just you and me now, Scott. Sometimes big moments are easy. Sometimes they're not.

The single most life-changing moment Stiles is ever going to get starts just like every other moment of his friendship with Scott.

"Hey," Scott says, flopping down on the couch next to Stiles, "X-Factor auditions are next month."

Stiles stares at Scott, because sometimes Scott doesn't realize that as well as Stiles knows him, he can't actually read minds. There's a pause Stiles has come to recognize as being the one where all the little wheels in Scott's head turn, and then Scott sighs.

"Please come with me and we can try out as a group. Please?"
"Why," Stiles says carefully, "are you asking me?"
"Single Ladies," Scott says, raising an eyebrow, "Do I really need to say anything else?"

Scott really doesn't need to say anything else, because the thing about being friends with someone forever is that they know all your secrets and can boil those secrets down to a handful of words. Sometimes they know those secrets because they were there when it happened, as is the case with The Single Ladies Video. Stiles isn't exactly proud of the fact that there's a video of him and Scott singing Single Ladies while doing the dance in leotards, but he's not going deny that his legs looked really fine in that leotard. He's also not going to deny that video having over 500 views kind of terrifies him and keeps him up some nights.

"No," Stiles sighs, "No. I'll go with you."

So that's how Stiles ends up waiting for two days when the X-Factor auditions come to San Francisco a week later. He and Scott are doing "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls because Stiles argued that he was already doing Scott a favor by going to the dumb auditions and so he got to pick the song. The fact that there's a rap section may or may not have influenced Stiles' decision, but it's also something Stiles already has a dance for and they only had a month to put their damn audition together so Stiles wanted something he already knew the words to and already had a dance for. Besides, both he and Scott are all for girl power. Girl power is awesome.

When the day of the auditions comes, they've got the dance down and they've got the song down and they're as prepared as they can be when they're called into the judging room. Scott looks like he's going to pass out or something and Stiles loops his arm around Scott, touching their foreheads together.

"We're gonna kill and get through, Scott. You know we'll rock it."

Closing his eyes, Scott breathes in and then out before grinning at Stiles. He straightens out, and then they're walking in front of the pre-judge audition people and Stiles doesn't know what happens to Scott when he steps on stage, but the moment Stiles does he stops being the awkward, kind of clumsy person he is normally because performing is what he does.

On a normal day, Stiles might run into walls or trip over air, but when he's on a stage he owns that shit and pure muscle memory takes over. The students at Beacon Hills High never appreciated how awesome Scott and Stiles are as a team, but Stiles knows when they finish that they have rocked it and these pre-judge people would be incredibly stupid if they didn't put them through. Stiles isn't the kind of person who would cause a scene, but he would definitely do that if they didn't at least get to sing in front of the judges. For Scott.

Luckily Stiles doesn't have to throw a fit, because the pre-judges put them through to sing in front of the judges. Which means that Stiles and Scott have to sing in front of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul and other people that Stiles doesn't remember. He's stuck on the Simon and Paula part.

He also kind of wants to puke.

This time Scott's the one touching their foreheads together and rubbing circles on Stiles' back. Stiles manages to not puke up the breakfast that Scott's mom fed them before they have to sing in front of Simon and Paula, and then they're being ushered into the judges room and Stiles experiences a blackout kind of like Niki Sanders in Heroes where he comes back to himself once they're back outside and Scott is hugging him and saying we did it, we did it.

Stiles pukes.

It's probably a testament to how much Scott likes Stiles and how much he's still riding on the high of getting through that Scott doesn't even complain about Stiles puking all over his shoes. He just ushers Stiles into the closest bathroom and cleans his shoes off to the best of his ability while Stiles washes out his mouth and lets the news sink in. They got through.

Of course there's still Bootcamp to get through and then the Judge's House and really, Stiles is going to spend a lot of time puking if this is how he reacted to the news of getting through to auditions. He really needs to work on that urge, because he and Scott are awesome and definitely going to get through Bootcamp somehow. Breathing out slowly, Stiles looks into the bathroom mirror and catches Scott's eye. Scott smiles at him, and Stiles knows it'll be okay. They'll be okay, because they've got each other.

"We're awesome," Scott says, "and when we're famous you are so totally buying me new shoes."
"You're gonna have to wait a while for that, I think," Stiles snorts, "We haven't even made it through Bootcamp yet, let alone got to the part where America needs to love us and vote."

They're legitimate concerns, but Scott rolls his eyes and slings an arm around Stiles before they're walking out to the Stiles' run-down Jeep and driving home to tell their parents. Scott's mom works nights and Stiles' dad is always on call, but he's usually home for dinner so they go to Stiles' house. Scott washes out his sneakers better and then they call Scott's mom, because really? This is definitely important enough to bother her at work.

"Hey, boys," Scott's mom says when she answers the phone, "how'd it go? Did you wow the judges with your talent and skill?"
"We got through," Scott shouts, "We're going to Bootcamp, mom!"

Scott's mom is as excited as they are, although she probably doesn't puke. Different people show their excitement in different ways; it's not Stiles' fault that he deals with life-changing events by puking. He'll get over it. Hopefully.

Anyway, the point is that Stiles makes dinner for Scott and his dad afterward just like any other day. When his dad comes home, Stiles tells him and his dad gives both him and Scott huge hugs. Stiles' dad might not be around that often anymore thanks to his job, but he always supports Stiles (and Scott, by proxy). Stiles really doesn't think he could ask for a more awesome dad.

Seriously, his dad doesn't even really say anything when Stiles tells him that they did "Wannabe." Well, he asks if Stiles wore the leotard and looks pretty relieved when Stiles says no, but Stiles' dad is a little Victorian when it comes to his clothing standards so Stiles thinks that has more to do with the fact that his legs are bare in a leotard than anything else. Stiles would permanently be wearing floor-length skirts if he was a girl, but he's not and pants cover your legs too so his dad prefers when he wears them.

If anybody asks, that's why Stiles mostly packs jeans in his Bootcamp bag. He does shove his leotard in the side pocket just before he's hopping in the car to go pick up Scott, though, because you never know when a leotard might come in handy. Scott grins when he sees it haphazardly sticking out of Stiles' bag, and pulls his own out of a pocket, which is why Stiles wouldn't trade Scott for anyone else. He likes his best friend just as dorky as he is, thank you very much.

(They both wear their leotards under their other clothes for the first day of Bootcamp, because they're nervous and it seems like a good confidence booster. The leotard does wonders for Scott's butt, okay? Stiles would know, because Stiles knows these things.)

Bootcamp is difficult, and there are tons of other people that are way better than them and some people who are on the same level, but Stiles knows that what he and Scott have is awesome. No one else is brave enough to be a two-man act that does songs mostly popularized by girls and boy bands-they have that niche pretty much to themselves. It's also a pretty weird and specific niche so that might have something to do with it.

In Stiles' honest and totally unbiased opinion, most of the acts are pretty boring in that they just stand and sing and sometimes they have a guitar or sit at a piano. Nobody really does dances and choreography like Stiles and Scott, which Stiles thinks they have going for them because they're actually good at dancing. If they were bad at dancing, it would probably work against them but as a couple of dudes who took dance up until it stopped counting for PE and then they switched to lacrosse, Stiles thinks that he and Scott are better-than-decent dancers. Not good enough to get on So You Think You Can Dance or anything, because Stiles can't do the splits to save his life, but definitely good enough to impress Paula and Simon and Nicole and that random dude who's on the judging panel trying to be Randy.

Who even is that guy? Stiles asks Scott when they're back in their shared hotel room, once, and Scott kind of shrugs helplessly.

"I think he's, like, big in producing," Scott says hesitantly, "but I'm not really sure."
"Wow," Stiles says, "he really is trying to be Randy, but less talented. Unless he plays bass too. Do you know if he plays bass?"
Scott shrugs, "I have no idea."

By the end of Bootcamp, Stiles is pretty sure that they'll get through. He's less sure that he's not going to puke again if they get through, but Scott makes him not eat breakfast just in case because Scott loves him but Scott definitely doesn't love him enough to have his shoes puked one twice in one month. Stiles doesn't blame him, because his shoes still kind of smell funky.

Regardless, he starts getting a little twitchy while they're waiting, because he might be better about his ADD now, but he is still very much ADD and yes he took his Adderall because Scott reminded him but sitting still in high-stress situations still makes him a little antsy. Scott's hand finds Stiles' and he laces their fingers together, squeezing gently. Stiles breathes in and then out. He's still a little twitchy, but at least the girl in front of him isn't turning around and giving him worried looks anymore. That's a good sign.

Paula calls them up along with some assorted reject solo artists, and both Stiles and Scott look at each other. They go up to the stage, unsure of what's going on, and then they're standing next to the reject solo artists and Paula's telling them that they're going through to the Judge's house! As a group!

"But we already are a group," Stiles hears himself say, "I don't understand."
"Stiles," Scott says, fingers digging into Stiles' arm, "Stiles, we're in a boy band."

Scott is, like, the happiest person alive about this turn of events, but Stiles feels about as enthused as the reject soloists look. He's really got to stop calling them reject soloists, even though they technically are, because sooner or later he'll say that out loud and then they'll hear it and hate him forever and their boy band will fall apart before they even have a name. Which would be terrible and then Scott would probably hate him forever. Stiles doesn't want Scott to hate him forever, because he only has one friend and that friend is Scott.

Besides, the reject soloists probably have names that aren't, like. Broody One, Urban One, and Attractive One. Stiles shouldn't be calling them that either because that'll come out of his mouth too and they'll hate him forever-there is a pattern to Stiles' thoughts here and that pattern is Stiles thinking of all the ways he can screw up and make the band hate him forever because he's really nervous and he just wants this to work out, okay? For Scott's sake more than his own, because this is like Scott's biggest dream and Stiles is totally there to support Scott 200%. Maybe more, if that's even possible.

Later, when they're having band meeting time, Stiles makes extra-sure to remember everyone's names. The Broody One is apparently named Derek Hale, the Urban One is called Boyd, and the Attractive One is Danny Something-that-starts-with-M. Stiles can't pronounce it, and he sympathizes. His real first name is pretty much unpronounceable and also weird, so everyone just calls him Stiles.

Or rather, Scott calls him Stiles and everyone else follows suit. Derek makes a really tragic and constipated face when Stiles says his name is "Stiles Stilinski," and Stiles is about to ask if he's okay when Boyd raises an eyebrow.

"Really? Your name is Stiles Stilinski?"
"Not really," Scott says before Stiles can respond, "but he wants to be called Stiles so call him Stiles. Don't be a dick, because we can't hate each other if we're going to win this thing."

Boyd seems to be okay with this response, murmuring sorry, dude, but Derek still looks a little pained. Stiles hopes he knows how to smile, because otherwise that's going to be a problem.

None of that is the point. The point is that their first order of business is supposed to be coming up with a band name, which would be a lot easier if they knew each other a little better and were probably a little more compatible personality-wise. Scott is already making friends with them all because Scott makes friends with pretty much everyone, but Stiles usually has a little bit worse luck in the making friends department. He's kind of spastic and tends to say strange things and has a bad habit of alienating people before they can get to know him. He knows that Derek in particular is probably going to hate him, because he looks like the kind of guy that frequently pushed Stiles into lockers when he were younger.

Although it's possible that Derek is a really nice guy, and Stiles should be more open-minded and also not judge people so they don't judge him. He should try to make friends with the other guys in the band before he decides they won't be friends with him for them.

They're not off to that great of a start, though, because after introductions have been made? They can't decide on a name. Wait, Stiles should rephrase that: Derek doesn't like any of the names they come up with. He vetoes anything involving the word "street," which makes Scott kind of pouty, and also any combination of their names or initials. Which leaves the option of throwing out random names until Derek agrees to something.

"We could call ourselves The Wolf Pack," Scott says after an hour of brainstorming.

That's the first name that Derek doesn't automatically veto, so they latch onto it because there's show people that keep stopping by and asking them if they've decided yet and they're getting cranky and Stiles really does not want the boy band to break up before they even record an album. Or actually get to perform on X-Factor.

"We could be The Wolves," Danny suggests.
Boyd snaps his fingers, "What if it was just Wolves?"
"Wolf," Derek says, the first real input he's given about the name, "with periods in-between the letters. So w period o period l period f period."

The rest of the band members look at Derek and frown, because that's a weird and pretentious name that none of the other members wants but Derek has scary and intense eyes so whatever. They go with the name because it makes Derek happy and Derek is by far the most disgruntled about their new status as a boy band. Derek being happy is pretty much the best thing possible for the band and maybe their continued life.

It's hard to say, really, because Derek probably isn't really a serial killer, but you can never be too sure. That's Stiles' general philosophy anyway. He likes staying alive.

Once they've settled on a name, though, they get to spend a couple days getting to know each other and mesh as a band before they get shipped off to the judges house. Well, driven there since Paula is their judge and she lives like twenty minutes or so outside of LA. That's what the show people say anyway and Stiles believes them because he's on unfamiliar turf and also he assumes that they know what they're doing.

Getting to know the band is pretty easy, though, and Stiles doesn't know how it happens, but they fit together in a way that's easy and comfortable. It turns out that Boyd is a fucking awesome rapper, Danny is intelligent but also has an amazing voice, and Derek is not the most friendly person, but he's an amazing singer. Stiles assumes that most of the solos will probably go to him because he's the strongest voice in their group. He'll be the Rachel of their New Directions-but hopefully less annoying and less likely to send people to crack houses, because that shit is just not cool and Stiles really can't forgive Glee for ruining Rachel's character forever.

Stiles' favorite new member in their group is definitely Danny, because Danny watches Glee too and he has a lot of the same feels about it that Stiles does, although Stiles doesn't ask what Danny ships and Danny doesn't offer. They both really like Kurt, even though his fabulousness is a little stereotypical, because he's a step forward for people like them, but Danny agrees when Stiles expresses annoyance at the dumb bisexuality plotline, because seriously Glee? Not cool. Even Scott hadn't reacted like that when he found out that Stiles is totally bisexual, although maybe that's because Scott's spent a lot of time around Stiles and is aware that they're pretty similar in their tastes only Scott wants to be Justin Timberlake and Stiles kind of wants to lick him all over.

It's not his fault Justin Timberlake is hot, okay?

Derek gets better the longer you know him, and once he gets over the initial annoyance of being put into a boyband, and Stiles thinks he can reasonably consider Derek an ally who is probably not going to murder him in his sleep. Stiles definitely doesn't have enough of those, so that's a good thing. Besides, Derek gets really indignant and upset when the show runners sit them down and give them a talk about how they're representing the American people and they need to be wholesome and appropriate for tv-which apparently includes being super heteronormative and never bringing up that Danny's not white? Stiles isn't really sure he understands all of what they're saying to him, but he knows it makes Derek mad and that's got to be good for something, because Derek doesn't seem to get mad about any little thing.

"Thanks for that," Stiles says after Derek's chewed out the showrunners and said they'll be whatever they see fit, "You didn't have to do that."
"You're my bandmates now," Derek replies, like that explains anything, "and if people can't understand that you don't pick who you love, then I don't want their votes anyway."

It's about then that Stiles realizes that Derek is pretty much a cupcake wrapped in tin foil. He looks really tough and unappetizing, but you get past the first couple of layers and he has a fluffy marshmallow center. Not that Stiles want to eat Derek or sleep with him-even though he is attractive and Stiles is pretty sure that his broodiness will win over teenage girls everywhere.

They've all got niches in the band-Derek is definitely The Bad Boy, Scott's pretty obviously The Cute One, which makes Danny The Heartthrob-even though Stiles isn't exactly sure where he and Boyd fit in. He guesses Boyd is The Rapper or maybe The Urban One, seeing as all songs in recent history need a rap verse and Boyd is definitely going to provide there, which leaves him. Stiles guesses that he's probably The Other One (with a possible upgrade to The Gay One, even though he's not actually gay). He's very firmly bisexual-with-preference and that preference is for dudes, but Stiles is never, ever going to turn down a nice rack because boobs are awesome and everyone should think so.

Even Danny admits that boobs are pretty okay, which Stiles thinks is a lot coming from a "girls are icky" straight-up gay dude. Well, that's not how Danny would describe himself but that's how he's classified in Stiles' head so whatever. The point is that mostly-gay has to be enough for being The Gay One.

When they get to Paula's house, Stiles half-expects her to consistently call him The Gay One, but thankfully she doesn't. Even if she's convinced his named is "Biles" and not "Stiles." The other band members try to correct her pretty frequently, but she just ignores them or has bad hearing or is drugged or whatever. It's Paula Abdul, who even knows? The point is that they're at Paula's house with the rest of the group acts, and Paula helps them out and trains them into being the next One Direction, but with better dance skills.

Seriously, Stiles loves One Direction as much as the next twelve-year-old girl, but those boys cannot dance. He knows that he and Scott can do better than them at that, and he suspects that both Danny and Boyd will be okay at dancing. It's really Derek that Stiles doesn't know about because for all that he seems pretty graceful, Stiles thinks he'd be a little clumsy at dancing. They'll whip him into shape, though, Stiles thinks, because he refuses to be the next 98 Degrees. Boy bands are like 50% cooler when they have highly choreographed dance routines, and Stiles is pretty sure that their dancing is going to be what wins them the competition.

Paula puts them through to the actual lives shows after their rendition of "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)." Stiles attributes it to their ~clever~ lyric change of "Backstreet" to "Wolf Pack." Besides, their choreography was pretty awesome even if Derek wasn't quite on the ball and there were a couple of mess-ups. That could mostly be attributed to the fact that they were getting used to each other more than anything. The whole point is that they get through to the live shows and then they're now competing for America's love with nineteen other acts.

(This time Stiles doesn't puke, but it's only because Scott is hugging him close and whispering if you puke I will destroy everything you love into his ear. So Stiles doesn't puke because Scott probably wouldn't carry through with his threat but Stiles doesn't want to be known as The Pukey One forever.)

Once they get through to the live shows, w.o.l.f. gets assigned an actual choreographer, which is nice because Stiles can do a pretty awesome job of choreography but he's definitely not the person that's going to push them to be their best, and someone who helps them out with music stuff, which is also nice because Stiles and Scott aren't really trained in that beyond elementary school choir. Derek has a lot of music experience, even though he's more of a guy-with-guitar kind of act than a pop act, and he really takes the lead in the music where Stiles accidentally takes the lead in choreography.

He also accidentally takes the lead in the band, because they're recording the little interviews for the show and no one is saying anything. Danny and Boyd and Derek just don't want to, Stiles guesses, but he cant figure out why the hell Scott isn't saying anything. He'd ask, but they're in the middle of recording and no one's saying anything so Stiles starts to babble until Derek looks horrified at the things that are coming out of Stiles' mouth and takes over until Scott regains his senses or whatever.

"Dude," Stiles says, once they're in some down time, "what was that back there? You're usually so ready to take on the leadership role, and you want this more than any of us."
"I dunno," Scott shrugs, "It just finally hit me, you know? We're doing this."

There's a lot of things Stiles could say to that, but he knows that Scott doesn't need any of them, so he just bumps their shoulders together and then slings an arm around Scott's shoulders while they walk to the practice space to fine-tune their vocal performance.

"We are," Stiles says, "and we will be the most awesome boy band since N'SYNC."

Scott looks a little dubious about that, but he's of the opinion that no one can be better than Justin Timberlake, so Stiles lets it pass. They will totally rock the casbah, and America is gonna love them. Stiles knows, because w.o.l.f. has an energy that's pretty impossible to mistake, and when Derek's not scowling, he has a charming smile that's going to wet teenage panties everywhere. Everywhere.

Stiles will believe that for both of them if he needs to, because there's nothing that he wouldn't do for Scott. He's here singing harmony because this is Scott's biggest dream (and it's a dream of his too, but it ranks below being a fandom BNF one day because Stiles is easy like that) so Stiles is going to do everything in his power to help Scott achieve it. Even if it means arguing when the stylist tries to put Stiles in clothes that clearly don't match the visual unity of the other outfits. He's seen this happen before with One Direction, okay? He's not going to let that shit happen to his band, because Stiles loves Louis but those red pants are pretty much the most distracting thing in the history of ever and Stiles wants w.o.l.f. to get votes because they rock and not because everyone can see Stiles' junk. Besides, salmon is totally not his color and Danny agrees.

Even Boyd agrees that Stiles' outfit is pretty awful, and Stiles doesn't think that Boyd pays too much attention to that kind of stuff. It's just that anyone with eyes and a sense of visual unity can see that Stiles just looks like a sore thumb. Derek and Scott apparently have no sense of fashion at all, because Derek wants to wear a t-shirt and jeans on stage, and Scott still doesn't understand what's wrong with no having a consistent color palette across every band member even though Stiles has explained it like eight times. With visuals!

Really, if Scott can't understand why the salmon pants are liable to make them lose votes to that douchebag with a guitar Jackson (who is apparently friends with Danny, and who Stiles is pretty sure he would be friends with if Jackson didn't keep making fun of him and also wasn't the one clearly being groomed to win), then he's hopeless. The reason why salmon pants are detrimental to their cause should be immediately apparent. They're salmon pants. No one wears salmon pants, not even salmon.

It doesn't matter in the long run, because they make it through the first week. And then the next week. And then the week after that. The whole thing feels like some kind of practical joke at times, because Stiles doesn't know what he did to deserve a life this awesome.

About the fourth week is when Stiles is beginning to think he makes really poor life choices. See, he's got some time before bed so he checks his f-list on LJ to see if there's anything good that's been posted and Stiles sees that one of his favorite authors has posted a brand-new Sherlock fic, which is the best, and after he's done reading it Stiles is reminded of that other fic they wrote and he goes looking for their masterlist only the first post in their journal catches his eye.

actual cannibal tony stark (
1st-eggokage) wrote,
2012-05-12 5:30:00

so, X-Factor.

i have a reality singing competition problem and also a cute boy bands problem.

i mean, i thoughts i was done with this stuff back when ai8 finished but apparently that is not the case and EXCUSE ME DANNY WHO LET YOU HAVE A FACE LIKE THAT????? like, seriously guys w.o.l.f. is probably the best boy band the world has known in a long time and i am going to vote for them 5EVA just to see their stupid faces week after week.

in other news, i guess i filled some prompts at
kinkfactor for this fandom. here they are:

the one where w.o.l.f. is an actually wolf pack (with bonus knotting!)
derek/scott size kink
genderswap scott/stiles makeouts
derek/scott D/s (with bonus waxplay!)

Tags: danny's face is a problem, american idol 2.0, eggo's boyband problem, maybe they're all actually werewolves
Stiles makes poor life choice #1: he clicks the link that takes him to him and Scott making out. As girls.

they've just come off stage, sweaty and overjoyed after another killer x-factor performance, and stelena turns to tell scottie that she rocked the splits this week when scottie presses stelena up against the wall. they're just out of view but there are people everywhere and stelena's about to complain when scottie kisses her. stelena flails, because that's what she does, and scottie's hand finds her hip, squeezing gently.

after another moment of flailing, stelena's hands tangle in scottie's shirt and she settles into the way that scottie's got her pressed up against the wall. she lets scottie lick her way into her mouth, fingers twisting the fabric of scottie's shirt in her hands, and tries not to collapse.
He can't look away. Abstractly, Stiles knows that RPF is a thing and that X-Factor RPF had to be a thing because the internet/teenage girls ship pretty boys together-fictional or not. He's just not prepared for, like, the fact that people apparently write him and Scott making out. Sexily. He's also not prepared for the fact that fic!Stiles gets about twelve times more action than he does. So he does the only reasonable thing to do.

He opens up the
kinkfactor community in another tab and proceeds to read every comment on the six pages of the first post. They're not all w.o.l.f. prompts because some are about Jackson and some are about Kate and some are about Erica&Issac Are Rad and some are about the judges and some are about contestants that Stiles can't even remember. A lot of them are about w.o.l.f., though, because fandom seems to LOVE them. They call them their babies and everything, it's very flattering. Stiles has never been anyone's baby. Or had stans, which he also apparently has. Everyone in the band has stans, which is pretty awesome, even when they're fighting each other about stuff like whether Stiles/Scott or Scott/Derek is the superior ship and whether Stiles or Boyd is the better rapper. Stiles wants to tell the Boyd and Stiles stans not to fight because Boyd is seriously a better rapper and Stiles totally concedes that, but he's aware that doing that would be breaking the fourth wall and probably a breach of confidence.

Overall though, their fandom seems to be pretty amazing. Seriously, everything about the X-Factor fandom is just freaking awesome, and Stiles stays up all night reading meta and looking at .gifs and not sleeping at all because he loves everyone in this bar.

(There's this really awesome, super-long meta post about WHY EVERYONE SHOULD LOVE ERICA&ISSAC ARE RAD by someone named glitterandgrit on tumblr that Stiles kind of wants to send to to Erica and Issac, but he figures that he should really keep his weird habits to himself. He likes the post anyway and reblogs it, which would be weird only Stiles has kept his fannish life and real life separate for long enough that no one is going to find out that ilovepickles is Stiles Stilinkski. Unless they're really stalkery. Which he's not exactly putting past anyone, but he'll worry about that bridge when he has to cross it.)

The next morning sucks, because Stiles hasn't slept at all and he's got dance practice bright and early. Because Scott's used to Stiles being a dumbass who sometimes doesn't sleep, he's understandably worried when Stiles stumbles into dance practice and actually falls over when they start to practice. Or, well. He doesn't really fall over, he just falls down. And it's terrible, because Stiles is supposed to be good at dancing, but it's hard to be good at dancing when you haven't slept.

"Dude," Scott says as he helps Stiles up, "are you okay? Did you even sleep last night? I thought you stopped pulling all-nighters for no reason when we got on X-Factor."
"Scott," Stiles whispers, "would you ever make out with me?"

Scott makes a face that Stiles is very familiar with, because Scott makes it every single time that Stiles asks Scott to make out with him (not because Stiles is attracted to him or anything, he just thinks making out with Scott would be awesome!) and Stiles has asked a lot of times. He blames Scott's hair. It's very distracting.

"Stiles," Scot says, sounding a little pained, "didn't we go over this in 8th grade? I'm really not. Attracted to you."
"I know," Stiles says morosely, "but I keep thinking the answer will change one day. Are you sure you won't make out with me?"
"No," Scott shakes his head, "Are you gonna be okay?"
"Yeah," Stiles sighs, "Yeah, I just didn't sleep last night. I got distracted."

When Scott lets Stiles go and they start practicing again, Derek is making constipated faces that Stiles chooses to interpret as a secret signal to get his head in the game. Stiles tries, but Scott's really more of a Troy and Stiles is a lot more of a Chad plus dance on no sleep really just sucks. Their choreographer is annoyed in that fabulous way performers always are, but Stiles can't help it okay. It's not his fault that someone on the internet named
teh_slush apparently wrote one where they're all in kindergarten and it was absolutely precious. He had to stay up reading it, okay? Had. To.

And then after that there was a superhero au written by someone called . . . Their name was a Green Lantern reference and that's all Stiles remembers. He was a little strung out by that point, if he's being honest.

They're in the bottom three that week, but Stiles knows it wasn't because of his exhaustion. It's because Jackson is still pulling all the teenager girl votes, and between them and Jackson? The girls of the modern era will probably pick Jackson, because boy bands are a thing of an era long gone. Also apparently all their efforts to be the next One Direction are falling flat, because seriously. They're a band made up of cute boys! Teenage girls everywhere should be voting for them!

Stiles is honestly disappointed that they're probably going to lose to Jackson. See, Jackson is nice-ish, but he's also really rich and it just seems like a waste to give more money to someone that rich whereas everyone in w.o.l.f. has been on food stamps at some point in their life and it sucks that they're just not going to win it all. Underdogs just aren't popular, Stiles guesses.

(He does appreciate the posts encouraging everyone to vote on tumblr, and he gives extra points to fallingaparttocuttime, if only because their post had an excellent, A+ use of .gifs in it.)

This is about when Stiles decides that clearly if he has to get dirty, he will get dirty. He posts to every one of his fannish accounts encouraging people to vote, and he doesn't know what impact he has in particular (although he suspects it's pretty large considering he has 200 twitter followers, 70 friends on LJ, and like 400 tumblr followers), but the end result is that w.o.l.f. isn't in the bottom three up until the week that they actually get sent home without any warning at all.

Stiles gets why it would be kind of ridiculous to have two groups for the final two, and he's really glad that Erica&Issac Are Rad get to be in the final because they're amazing for all the reasons tumblr user glitterandgrit said and more, but most of him is just sad that he's not going to be in the final. All of them are sad, but secretly relieved in the deep-down parts of their hearts (except for Scott, who cries in the bathroom the entire night while Stiles sits next to him and hands him tissues and tells him that they'll be okay) and they think that's the end of it.

None of them are committed to the band in the way Scott is, so they assume that they'll just disappear and try solo careers or internet musician ones, but then they get a record deal and Scott bumps shoulders with Stiles and tells him that he still owes him a pair of shoes.

"We're not rich yet," Stiles says, in lieu of puking all over Derek or something.
"It's only a matter of time," Scott grins, "Just reminding you."

Honestly, though? Stiles doesn't need the reminder. After the X-Factor finale, they have a Top Ten tour to go on and it's exciting and annoying in equal parts. The band as a whole still isn't entirely used to being around each other all the time, even though they're a sort-of family now, and being in a cramped bus doesn't make life comfortable or fun at all. Stiles and Scott are used to being in enclosed spaces with each other from camping and sharing beds too many times to count, but Stiles thinks that maybe Derek has never had to interact with other people living in the same space as him ever in his life.

It takes him a while to get used to bus life, and the rhythm of it, but when he gets the hang of it, Derek's pretty okay to be around. Mostly Stiles spends a lot of time hanging out with Scott and Boyd and Danny, because Derek has a thing with Kate and Derek spends a lot of time over in Kate's bus doing stuff none of them want to think about. It's not a big deal, though, because Boyd apparently kicks ass at Left 4 Dead and so nobody minds if Derek has sex with weird and vaguely plastic girls while their on tour. It's not that they don't care about Derek and his life; zombies are just that awesome.

Boyd actually kicks all their asses at Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2, because Boyd is some kind of freaky video game genius. He and Scott talk about that a lot when Stiles and Danny kick everyone off the tv so they can watch Glee or What Not to Wear as a much-needed break from playing video games where you kill things all the time. Probably that's perpetuating stereotypes, but Stiles actually doesn't even care because Kurt Hummel is fabulous and Stacey London has some really impeccable shoes. Also those happen to be the shows that Danny and Stiles have on DVD.

As much as none of them want to be all up in Derek's business, the whole Kate thing is kind of worrying. They're all pretty happy when Derek breaks up with her halfway through tour, even though it's pretty obvious that she's going to be writing Taylor Swift-esque songs about Derek for the rest of forever and Derek spends a lot of time being broody. Mostly the band leaves him alone, because that's the correct way to deal with Derek, but Scott gets really worried about him and he bugs Stiles about it because that's what Scott does and so eventually the whole band ends up crammed in the lounge of their bus watching bad werewolf movies because they're Derek's favorite.

Stiles actually doesn't think twice about snuggling up against Scott, who absently pets at Stiles' hair, because that's what they always do when they're watching movies. Danny gives him a slightly odd look, but Stiles figures that Danny might just be jealous that Stiles gets to snuggle with Scott. He is a fine piece of ass, after all, so Stiles doesn't think that's out of line.

The rest of the tour passes with a minimal amount of angst and a lot of cuddles. Also they cover One Direction one stop, which Stiles definitely does not get waaaaay too into and definitely also sings all the right words to. Haha, yeah. Totally.

When tour is over, though, the band is supposed to meet up with their PR agent rep person. She's tiny, strawberry-blond, her name is Lydia, and Stiles is in love with her at first sight. The problem is that he shows his love by being annoying and generally making her life difficult. It's just what he does most of the time; he can't help it. He shows his love for Scott by making Scott's life difficult and dragging him through the woods even though he needs an inhaler sometimes and also by puking on his shoes. Scott has learned to live with it because it's just the way that Stiles is. Lydia deals with Stiles' unusual ways of showing affection by sitting him down and having long talks with him about things like why he can't do the things he does and why it's not appropriate to offer up embarrassing stories about bandmates to every interviewer.

According to Lydia, Stiles is the world's worst PR disaster. Scott tells him that he isn't, because Scott is actually the best, but for the most part Stiles tries to follow Lydia's rules. Except for when he doesn't and he takes Scott down with him because Scott is a good friend like that.

(Also that time? With the mob at Starbucks? Totally not his fault. He goes to a Starbucks because muffins and cakepops then a swarm of teenage girls try to molest him. Him! The gay one! Not Derek! Or Scott! It's weird. Stiles vaguely wonders if this is how One Direction felt and then he gets distracted thinking about Zayn's abs. Zayn is hot. The point is that Stiles doesn't see how he was supposed to anticipate handsy twelve-year-olds, but when he says that to Lydia he just gets a frosty look in return.)

Anyway, the real reason that they have Lydia is that they're going to be recording an album and Lydia keeps track of stuff like what they need to do to get it done on time and what they're allowed to say about the album. For the most part, all they're allowed to say is that they're writing the album themselves, it's going to be awesome, and they'll say more when they know more.

Which is apparently code for "Lydia is going to lock them in a house for a month and not let them leave until they have an album's worth of songs." They start writing.

It works out so that Derek is writing the requisite sad love ballads with windy beach videos, Scott is writing all the straight-up love songs people end up calling "their song" and get all sappy over, Danny is writing all the energetic club music, and Boyd is (obviously) writing all the raps. Stiles doesn't get to write anything, because everyone in the band thinks his lyrics are awful. He thinks that's a little harsh, but probably also for the best.

Still, Stiles begs and begs and begs and gets Scott to help him beg for a rap on the album. Boyd doesn't care, but Derek is wary and the album is like his precious baby, so mostly Scott wheedles Derek into agreeing that Stiles can do one rap, which makes Stiles the happiest person ever.

He doesn't even care that most of what he does during the month where everyone else is writing the album is writing fanfic. About his own band members. And posting it to the internet as ilovepickles. And also leaking photos of the band while they're writing. Not as ilovepickles, but it's great all the same. And doing livestreams, which Lydia tells him to quit after he and Scott do one where they basically do everything Lydia's told them not to do ever. He still doesn't get Scott to make out with him, but he plants a giant smacking kiss on Scott's cheek.

The next morning there's like eight fics about what he and Scott did after the livestream, and Stiles feels a little bit like a god.

Look, it's not like he has anything else to do except hang out with Boyd and play video games and do lacrosse drills with Scott, and everyone else is busy writing and being productive so Stiles turns to writing fanfic. Besides, the fame he's achieved in the fandom during their X-Factor period has gone to his head, because everyone is awesome. He gets comments on everything he writes and okay. They've achieved Scott's dream, so Stiles goes after his. Is it cheating if he's a BNF in the fandom for his band? Probably. Does he care? Not really.

The entire future is shaping up to be pretty awesome, if you ask Stiles. Maybe he didn't expect any of what's happened that day Scott told him about the X-Factor auditions, but that's okay. Some big, life-changing moments are easy to identify and some aren't life-changing until you know what comes after that moment. Stiles is okay with most of his moments being unrecognizable.

(For the record, Stiles never expected the one rap they didn't even use on the album to get him a boyfriend and a partner in crime, but there's a lot of things about the future that Stiles couldn't ever imagine in a million years. He didn't even think that Erica&Issac Are Rad were going to win, but they did and boy is Stiles glad the entire band stayed up all night voting for them. It was totally worth it. And probably also not legal, but seriously, Jackson didn't win and that's all Stiles really cares about. Sometimes you gotta make a life-changing moment yourself, after all, or get your hands a little dirty to get what you want. That's just life.)

All in all, though, Stiles cannot complain about his life. At all.

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