Belief is a Wise Wager
Title: Belief is a Wise Wager
Summary: Stiles accepts a new job (thanks to Mayor Laura Hale), in a new town and inadvertently starts a war, but it’s not his fault. Honestly.
Warnings: Masturbation, Vibrators
Rating: Mature
Chapters: 7/?
Notes: I swore up, down and whatever other direction that I wouldn’t post another WIP, yet here it is! I just feel like I’m more motivated to work harder once I’ve posted.
PS AO3
1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6|
--
Stiles still doesn’t know what was up with his random day off from work, but like Laura said don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. So he didn’t. He did however wonder about the lack of people in town, other than Luke and Ms Kim. Once again, he puts it down to this quirky village.
While Stiles is at work, just about to head for his lunch break his phone is ringing, it’s Scott. Stiles decides to answer even though he was acting weird that night at the village meeting, or whatever it was they called it.
“Hey man,” Scott hedges into the phone. “I wanted to apologise about the other night, and when I didn’t answer your texts.”
“I figured you were with this girlfriend of yours, which okay cool, but not at some secretive village meeting in which the newbie cannot attend.”
“I would have texted you back if I was with Allison!” Scott protested, “Unless we were, you know? Bro’s before ho’s, except don’t tell her I said that, she’ll kick me in the balls.”
Stiles can’t help but laugh, but then remembers that Scott isn’t off the hook just yet. “So bro’s before ho’s but super-secret elite meetings before bro’s?”
“I promise next time I won’t leave you hanging. Luke’s tonight for dinner? I’m paying.”
“Deal, I’m feeling particularly hungry today.”
-
Scott is soon off the hook, after he bought Stiles dinner and the best apple pie he’s ever tasted in his life. Stiles is starting to think he has a major crush on Luke, this man can fucking cook and bake like the best of them. Watch out Rachel Ray, Luke Danes is coming to a television network near you. Except, no he can’t actually picture Luke in front of the camera, but still.
He soon forgets about the weird village meeting, because everyone is back to being his friend again, more talkative and everything. Except he still avoids Ms Kim’s Antique Shop like it’s the plague, because she seriously scares him.
-
Before Stiles realises it, it’s December 1st and the town has magically transformed overnight. He wakes up one morning, ready to walk into work when he sees string lights hung up on all the buildings, wrapped around lamp posts and even on the gazebo in the middle of the village. It’s still dark enough this early in the morning on his walk to work, that the lights are still on, some a solid colour, some flashing, some green and red, others plain.
There’s even a sled and pretend Santa with his reindeers on the top of Great Wolfs Lodge. The only place that isn’t decorated is Luke’s Diner. Not a single string of light up, no pretend Santa or elves, no tinsel, candy canes or stars. Bah Humbug.
Stiles doesn’t dwell on that long enough though, because the only thing going through his head is how the hell did all these decorations appear over night? Stiles never does find out though. It remains a mystery.
With Christmas nearing everything seems to be turning out just right, more and more people seem happier, talkative and friendly. There are decorations at every corner, the smell of hot chocolate, eggnog and gingerbread being baked; there are even candy canes in almost every shop (except of course, for Luke’s).
Tables are being pushed together in Luke’s so that everyone can sit together. One evening when Stiles walks in, he’s being called over and sandwiched in between Dean and his girlfriend, who Stiles recognises from working at the book store, Rory. Beside Rory is Lane, who Stiles learns is Ms Kim’s daughter, when Stiles tells Lane that he met her mother, Lane automatically apologises for whatever her mother had done. Stiles laughs and realises he automatically likes Lane - plus after talking for a little while, he finds out they have similar taste in music.
Scott is sitting across from Stiles, Isaac beside him, with Boyd, Erica and even Derek scattered around the jumbled together tables. Everyone is talking loudly and ordering food. Luke looks like he’s about to have an aneurism.
“Why aren’t there any decorations in here or outside the diner?” Stiles finally gives in, asking. There’s a collective groan from around the table, and he’s pretty sure he can hear Derek snort.
“We’re not some sort of side show,” Luke grunts, “We don’t need to decorate for every damn holiday, and declare certain day’s snowmen day or hold a festival for lights, or pumpkins or do Easter egg hunts. This village is mad!”
Stiles is pretty sure that Luke was about to go on another ten minute rant, but a woman from somewhere else in the diner says “aw sweetie, come here,” and makes pinching motions with her fingers like she just wants to gobble Luke up, and with that he’s dashing behind the counter again, pretending to busy himself.
“Never, ever, ever get Luke started on village traditions and holidays. Not unless you want to be banished from the diner, or endure a rant like one you’ve never seen,” Dean advises Stiles as he takes a bite of pie.
“But it is fun to wind Luke up every once in a while, he needs to blow some steam,” Rory giggles, snatching up the last bit of pie from Dean’s plate.
“Huh, kind of reminds me of you Gypsy,” Stiles jokes looking to where Derek is sitting polishing off a burger.
“You haven’t seen him at the annual spring carnival, he’ll knock a person over to get to the funnel cake,” Isaac laughed.
“Oooh, Mr Doom and Gloom has a sweet tooth huh?”
“What is it with you and nicknames?” Derek sighs.
“You’re right, sorry. I’m sticking to Gypsy.”
Derek sighs again, because nothing he says will ever get him to stop Stiles from calling him Gypsy. Well there is the threat of violence, but there are too many people here that Derek knows for a fact would jump to Stiles’ defence rather than Derek’s. Stiles was a little shit that no one could help but love.
-
It’s a Friday evening a week later, Stiles has just finished work and decides to pick up a few groceries for the week. Before he heads to Doose’s Market, he goes to the doctor’s office to see Melissa McCall about his injured wrist. As she’s looking over his wrist, Scott strolls in - while his mother gives him an exasperated look - and asks if Stiles has any plans tomorrow night. Stiles says he doesn’t. Scott says everyone is going to go to House of Wolf (surprise, surprise there). Except Stiles actually likes it there, so he doesn’t mind.
Melissa tells him that his wrist is almost all better; he doesn’t have to wear the brace anymore. Stiles almost practically kisses Melissa on the cheek because he’s so grateful. No more awkward trying to shower with the brace, or trying to type at work and most definitely no more awkward jerk off sessions. He has free reign of his hand and he intends to take absolute, full advantage of it.
Once Stiles is done at the doctor’s office he heads to the supermarket. Taylor Doose is behind the checkout, scanning and bagging someone’s groceries, deep in conversation that he hardly pays any attention to Stiles when he walks in, or he’s purposefully ignoring Stiles. Not that Stiles cares either way. He grabs a basket and starts his walk up and down the aisles trying to figure out what he wants.
Stiles is pretty engrossed in looking at the nutritional content of a pack of frozen chocolate chip waffles when he sees out of the corner of his eye, a guy walking around a corner and down one of the aisles. He also notices $20 on the ground.
“Hey, excuse me, excuse me!” Stiles calls, bending down to pick up the $20 chasing the guy down the aisle. “I think you dropped this.”
The man turns around looking at Stiles, and pats his pocket where the note must have fallen out. “Thanks. Most people would have just kept it!” The guy says, smiling as he takes the $20 note back.
Stiles has gotten to know most of the people around here, but he’s never seen this guy before. He wonders if he’s new, or just a resident that hasn’t been out and about much, more Boo Radley-esque.
“Well, had I not seen the money fall from your pocket, and it was just lying on the ground then it’s fair game. But I don’t need any karma coming back to bite me in the ass,” Stiles points out.
The man laughs says fair enough, and introduces himself as Ian and says he’s new in town.
Stiles instantly brightens up, glad to see that he’s no longer the newbie in town it’s almost a relief. Stiles tells Ian as much as Ian laughs.
“Well, since I don’t know anyone here, besides you, anywhere good to eat?”
“Luke’s Diner,” Stiles nods, “Just make sure to order quickly. Short and to the point, that’s how Luke likes it.”
“If you’re not busy why not join me?” Ian asks, continuing before Stiles can answer, “Besides, you gave me back my $20, the least I could do is buy you a coffee or something.”
Stiles finally agrees, because the temptation of Luke’s coffee is too appealing, it’s almost like a drug, more so than any other coffee he’s drank in his life. Besides, being nice to the new person in town wouldn’t be any harm, after all Stiles knows how long it takes the people of Wulfstan to warm up. So, he drops his groceries back where he found them, saying he can finish his shopping later. He doesn’t miss the way Taylor gives him a dirty look on his way out, because he didn’t put everything back where it was supposed to go.
-
In a village as small as Wulfstan, it’s not hard to tell when a new person enters the perimeter. It’s even easier to tell when the new person that enters isn’t a human but a werewolf - and one just recently entered.
Derek sensed it almost immediately. He was at Gypsy’s; going over the inventory of all the spare parts they had left over when he caught a whiff. It wasn’t unusual for a stray werewolf to enter Wulfstan; it’s just not something that happens on a regular basis. With that being said, they almost have to immediately get checked out, make sure they don’t pose a threat.
Derek knew he had to tell Laura, thankfully they were back to talking. She never said a word about what happened on the night of the full moon and he doesn’t know why. Laura is absolutely not the kind of person to ignore a problem until it goes away, instead she goes at it head on - why she was keeping her mouth shut about Derek and his interest in Stiles was beyond him. But Derek wasn’t going to question it.
He knew by the time he got to the Town Hall, which wouldn’t take long, that someone would probably have already told Laura about the new visitor, but he figured he might as well make the effort. Only, his journey to Town Hall took him right past Luke’s Diner, where he happened to catch a whiff again of said visitor, who was currently at a table laughing and talking to Stiles. Stiles, who was laughing in return, a grin across his face looking utterly relaxed.
Derek doesn’t know why, but he bristles at seeing the two of them together and puts it down to Stiles could be in danger. This guy hasn’t been vetted, he could be a rogue werewolf and about to harm a human being, a human being that has no idea he lives in a village full of werewolves and a human who is completely at the mercy of this new visitor.
He quickens his pace to the Town Hall, but instead of taking the staircase up to Laura’s office like he initially intended to, he takes the stairs down to the basement, typing in a code that gives him access to Stiles’ giant office and accidently spills some water on a circuit board. The circuit board starts to sizzle, a little flame igniting before it’s doused out and the computer screens go black. He only hopes he didn’t fry the whole system, just enough to call Stiles away from his ‘date’.
-
“So, what are you even doing here?” Ian asks, “You don’t seem like the … Type to be in Wulfstan, no offence.”
“None taken,” Stiles laughs, “No I’m not originally from here as you guessed, I work here though.”
Stiles likes Ian so far, he’s been nothing but nice and talkative. They’ve ordered their food, talked a little about what there is to do in Wulfstan. Stiles laughed saying he could hardly be the tour guide, considering he’s only been here about a month or so. When Stiles asks why Ian is even considering moving here, Ian falters a little before answering that he thinks it would be a good fit for him. Stiles has no idea what that even means, but nods his head like he understands, gulping his delicious coffee.
There’s not many people in the diner, just Kirk who is sitting by himself finishing off a bagel and muttering to himself something about his receipt bill not being right, Luke is overcharging him. Luke, of course is in the diner as well, and Stiles notices that he’s paying extra attention to Stiles and his new companion. Luke’s eyes track every movement Ian makes, watches as Stiles moves and talks - Stiles puts it down to Luke not liking new people. He’s only now barely gotten used to Stiles himself, let alone another new person. Even as Luke picks up the phone to call someone, Stiles still sees him staring. Strange.
Stiles’ phone buzzes on the table and he apologises saying he has to get it when he sees the caller ID come up and it’s Laura. Ian says no problem and picks up his own phone starting to scroll through it to give Stiles some privacy.
“Hello?”
“Stiles, there’s an emergency at the Town Hall, a system has fried or something I need you to get here immediately!” Laura half shouts into the phone.
“Oh, umm okay?” Stiles says looking at his watch, it’s almost 8 PM on a Friday, and he remembers Laura saying she’d only ever call him in late if there was an emergency and he supposes this is considered an emergency. “Be there in a sec.”
Stiles hangs up and frowns at his phone. “I’m sorry, I’ve gotta go Ian, an emergency came up at work.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ian shrugs, smiling, “Can I get your -”
“Stiles! I need your help at the Great Wolf Lodge,” Isaac yells barging in through the diner letting the door rattle as it shuts, cutting off whatever Ian was going to say.
“What?” Stiles asks in complete confusion, “What could you possibly need my help for?”
“My computer won’t turn on.”
“What?” Stiles asks again this time shaking his head - what the actual fuck is even going on. “Laura just called me, said there’s an emergency. You’ll have to survive without your computer for a little while longer.”
“Oh, she called?” Isaac says looking relieved, “Well then I’ll walk you. My computer probably just needs a good smack. Come on.” Isaac walks around to where Stiles is sitting and all but grabs him and shoves him out the door. He doesn’t even get a chance to say bye or thanks to Ian.
Once Isaac has so graciously seen that Stiles has made it to the basement he disappears again but Stiles doesn’t have much time to think about what the hell is going on, soon being distracted by the fried circuit board.
Thankfully, the main server hasn’t been fried, only a small portion that should be easy to recover within a few hours. At least it’s not going to be an all-nighter he thinks, and at least he didn’t have any plans. He would hate to miss out on a good night at House of Wolf.
“What happened?”
Stiles startles from where he’s leaning over the circuit board trying to unplug it without electrocuting himself, or worse yet frying the whole system - because he’s pretty sure Laura is more concerned with all the encryptions rather than Stiles’ own well-being.
“Dude! Heart attack, not to mention potentially frying everything,” Stiles screeches, clutching his chest, looking at where Derek’s standing in the doorway.
“Well?”
“I don’t know man; everything was fine when I left it this evening after work. Now all of a sudden it’s fried. God Laura is going to kill me if she thinks I left a drink down here or something.”
“I’m sure she won’t.”
“You’re her brother Gypsy, if you fucked up she’d probably forgive you because you’re family. Me? Not so much.”
“Can you fix it at least?”
Stiles nods his head and doesn’t see when Derek lets out a sigh of relief - because Derek would have been the one in trouble if Laura found out he intentionally fried the system to get Stiles away from this new, potentially dangerous visitor.
-
Mere seconds after Stiles was being shoved out the door by Isaac was Boyd bursting in to Luke’s diner and escorting Ian to the Town Hall. Ian thankfully didn’t put up a fight and agreed to follow Boyd; he did after all intend to see the Mayor.
Boyd didn’t make any small talk with Ian, but stayed close to him as they walked to the Town Hall, leading him up the stairs to Laura’s office. He opened the door, allowing Ian to enter first, Boyd followed in after. Sitting behind the desk in her chair was Laura, two other people in the room as well. There’s Billy, a large burly man with a beard and beer belly who works in construction - and looks like he could snap a person with his pinkie finger and Charles, an elderly man who is in the know of everything that goes on in the Village, and Village history.
Laura tells Ian to have a seat and gets right down to business, asks what he’s doing here. She had expected Derek to be in the room, he was after all family and would be the next Mayor should anything ever God forbid happened to her - yet he was nowhere to be found.
Ian puts his hands up in defence and says he comes in peace. He’s an Omega who’s grown tired of being on his own, wandering from state to state. He’s come into contact with too many other werewolf packs that either want him to join, and use him to their advantage - which would be to his disadvantage, want to kill him or worse yet come into contact with hunters who wanted to kill him, slowly using any torture technique they could think of.
Laura sits and silently listens, the rest of the room deafening quiet. They’re all paying attention to his heartbeat, it’s not impossible for another werewolf to lie but with the help of four werewolves all listening to one werewolves heart, they had the advantage.
When Laura had heard a loud banging sound, sending Boyd running to see what it was, coming back and telling her it was the system being fried, in addition to there being a new werewolf in town (thanks to Luke who called from the diner) Laura had thought the two went hand-in-hand. Laura had thought another pack, even just a lone werewolf had come to attack Wulfstan for whatever reason, and she intended to get to the bottom of it.
Except, listening to Ian tell his story without a blip in his heartbeat, no spike in his emotion or body language, she deemed him to be telling the truth. He genuinely wanted to stop being a wanderer, philandering from state to state and running into trouble at every turn he takes.
Ian had went on about how he heard of this pack living in Wulfstan that years ago used to welcome omegas, provide them shelter, a pack, someone to care for them and them to care for. He said he decided to set out across the country to get here, to see if they would accept him, it was worth a shot. Even though it had taken him longer than expected to get here since it wasn’t exactly the easiest place to find.
It is true, Wulfstan years ago when Laura’s dad was the Mayor, and even his predecessor used to welcome omegas and other werewolves looking for a pack and shelter. Wulfstan had become something of a safe haven for lone werewolves, more so in the past than now in the future - but the story was still around, apparently.
Laura was hesitant at first about allowing Ian to stay, although she can hear her father’s words in her head telling her to let him stay, back then the dangers were more limited, their numbers were stronger and they hardly had to worry about hunters, only other packs. Except now, now things were different and Laura had to be vigilante in keeping her village safe, she couldn’t show weakness not in front of hunters and most definitely not in the face of other werewolf packs.
But, she knew what was right, was right and she told Ian he was allowed to stay, but he was on probation and the village would be watching him like a, well no not a hawk, like a werewolf. Boyd quickly whispers something into her ear before she speaks again.
“Oh and another thing, stay away from Stiles. He’s important to this village and not to get distracted.”
Even though Derek was in the building, he couldn’t hear through the cement walls, not all the way down in the basement, so he didn’t hear when Laura had welcomed Ian to Wulfstan. He wouldn’t be impressed in the least (except maybe for the stay away from Stiles thing, but that seemed to be a general statement to anyone too interested in him).
Laura was also not impressed in the least that her brother was a no-show.
-
It’s almost ten PM and Stiles is still seated in his office chair, going through files making sure everything is still there and secure. Derek had been there for the most of the time, even helping if only limited by handing Stiles something when he needed it, or helping him disconnect the server so that it didn’t affect the rest of the system. Now though, Derek was nowhere in sight. Stiles didn’t blame him though, Stiles has been sitting there for the past half hour, staring at the computer screen muttering to himself and ignoring a silent Derek who was seated in another chair flipping through some old files.
“Here, don’t spill it,” Derek said frightening Stiles for the second time that night. He handed Stiles a paper cup filled to the brim with coffee - from Luke’s.
“Isn’t Luke’s closed?” Stiles asked blinking up at Derek his eyes adjusting to an actual face and not a computer screen.
“It helps to know the owner,” Derek rolls his eyes.
“The owner knows me and he certainly wouldn’t open up just for me.”
“You want it or not?” Derek asks gruffly.
“Want,” Stiles takes the cup and takes a sip. He lets out a filthy groan of pleasure and takes another sip. “Thanks Gypsy,” Stiles beams. He’s about to set the cup down on the table but then second guesses it, not trusting himself not to spill it and most certainly fuck up the whole system.
Derek extends his hand and takes the cup from Stiles. He holds it in his hand, sitting down in a chair and propping his feet up on the table beside Stiles. Stiles own personal cup holder, how cute. Then, Derek takes a sip of Stiles’ coffee and Stiles nearly has a heart attack, because no one touches his precious coffee. Derek doesn’t even like the taste of coffee, but can’t resist taking a sip, trying to chase the flavour of coffee mixed with Stiles, however faint it may be. He raises his eyebrow like he dares Stiles to say something - Derek did buy the coffee, didn’t he?
“Cooties man, cooties,” but Stiles is laughing and directs his gaze back to the computer screen, cracking down on his work.
8|
Summary: Stiles accepts a new job (thanks to Mayor Laura Hale), in a new town and inadvertently starts a war, but it’s not his fault. Honestly.
Warnings: Masturbation, Vibrators
Rating: Mature
Chapters: 7/?
Notes: I swore up, down and whatever other direction that I wouldn’t post another WIP, yet here it is! I just feel like I’m more motivated to work harder once I’ve posted.
PS AO3
1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6|
--
Stiles still doesn’t know what was up with his random day off from work, but like Laura said don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. So he didn’t. He did however wonder about the lack of people in town, other than Luke and Ms Kim. Once again, he puts it down to this quirky village.
While Stiles is at work, just about to head for his lunch break his phone is ringing, it’s Scott. Stiles decides to answer even though he was acting weird that night at the village meeting, or whatever it was they called it.
“Hey man,” Scott hedges into the phone. “I wanted to apologise about the other night, and when I didn’t answer your texts.”
“I figured you were with this girlfriend of yours, which okay cool, but not at some secretive village meeting in which the newbie cannot attend.”
“I would have texted you back if I was with Allison!” Scott protested, “Unless we were, you know? Bro’s before ho’s, except don’t tell her I said that, she’ll kick me in the balls.”
Stiles can’t help but laugh, but then remembers that Scott isn’t off the hook just yet. “So bro’s before ho’s but super-secret elite meetings before bro’s?”
“I promise next time I won’t leave you hanging. Luke’s tonight for dinner? I’m paying.”
“Deal, I’m feeling particularly hungry today.”
-
Scott is soon off the hook, after he bought Stiles dinner and the best apple pie he’s ever tasted in his life. Stiles is starting to think he has a major crush on Luke, this man can fucking cook and bake like the best of them. Watch out Rachel Ray, Luke Danes is coming to a television network near you. Except, no he can’t actually picture Luke in front of the camera, but still.
He soon forgets about the weird village meeting, because everyone is back to being his friend again, more talkative and everything. Except he still avoids Ms Kim’s Antique Shop like it’s the plague, because she seriously scares him.
-
Before Stiles realises it, it’s December 1st and the town has magically transformed overnight. He wakes up one morning, ready to walk into work when he sees string lights hung up on all the buildings, wrapped around lamp posts and even on the gazebo in the middle of the village. It’s still dark enough this early in the morning on his walk to work, that the lights are still on, some a solid colour, some flashing, some green and red, others plain.
There’s even a sled and pretend Santa with his reindeers on the top of Great Wolfs Lodge. The only place that isn’t decorated is Luke’s Diner. Not a single string of light up, no pretend Santa or elves, no tinsel, candy canes or stars. Bah Humbug.
Stiles doesn’t dwell on that long enough though, because the only thing going through his head is how the hell did all these decorations appear over night? Stiles never does find out though. It remains a mystery.
With Christmas nearing everything seems to be turning out just right, more and more people seem happier, talkative and friendly. There are decorations at every corner, the smell of hot chocolate, eggnog and gingerbread being baked; there are even candy canes in almost every shop (except of course, for Luke’s).
Tables are being pushed together in Luke’s so that everyone can sit together. One evening when Stiles walks in, he’s being called over and sandwiched in between Dean and his girlfriend, who Stiles recognises from working at the book store, Rory. Beside Rory is Lane, who Stiles learns is Ms Kim’s daughter, when Stiles tells Lane that he met her mother, Lane automatically apologises for whatever her mother had done. Stiles laughs and realises he automatically likes Lane - plus after talking for a little while, he finds out they have similar taste in music.
Scott is sitting across from Stiles, Isaac beside him, with Boyd, Erica and even Derek scattered around the jumbled together tables. Everyone is talking loudly and ordering food. Luke looks like he’s about to have an aneurism.
“Why aren’t there any decorations in here or outside the diner?” Stiles finally gives in, asking. There’s a collective groan from around the table, and he’s pretty sure he can hear Derek snort.
“We’re not some sort of side show,” Luke grunts, “We don’t need to decorate for every damn holiday, and declare certain day’s snowmen day or hold a festival for lights, or pumpkins or do Easter egg hunts. This village is mad!”
Stiles is pretty sure that Luke was about to go on another ten minute rant, but a woman from somewhere else in the diner says “aw sweetie, come here,” and makes pinching motions with her fingers like she just wants to gobble Luke up, and with that he’s dashing behind the counter again, pretending to busy himself.
“Never, ever, ever get Luke started on village traditions and holidays. Not unless you want to be banished from the diner, or endure a rant like one you’ve never seen,” Dean advises Stiles as he takes a bite of pie.
“But it is fun to wind Luke up every once in a while, he needs to blow some steam,” Rory giggles, snatching up the last bit of pie from Dean’s plate.
“Huh, kind of reminds me of you Gypsy,” Stiles jokes looking to where Derek is sitting polishing off a burger.
“You haven’t seen him at the annual spring carnival, he’ll knock a person over to get to the funnel cake,” Isaac laughed.
“Oooh, Mr Doom and Gloom has a sweet tooth huh?”
“What is it with you and nicknames?” Derek sighs.
“You’re right, sorry. I’m sticking to Gypsy.”
Derek sighs again, because nothing he says will ever get him to stop Stiles from calling him Gypsy. Well there is the threat of violence, but there are too many people here that Derek knows for a fact would jump to Stiles’ defence rather than Derek’s. Stiles was a little shit that no one could help but love.
-
It’s a Friday evening a week later, Stiles has just finished work and decides to pick up a few groceries for the week. Before he heads to Doose’s Market, he goes to the doctor’s office to see Melissa McCall about his injured wrist. As she’s looking over his wrist, Scott strolls in - while his mother gives him an exasperated look - and asks if Stiles has any plans tomorrow night. Stiles says he doesn’t. Scott says everyone is going to go to House of Wolf (surprise, surprise there). Except Stiles actually likes it there, so he doesn’t mind.
Melissa tells him that his wrist is almost all better; he doesn’t have to wear the brace anymore. Stiles almost practically kisses Melissa on the cheek because he’s so grateful. No more awkward trying to shower with the brace, or trying to type at work and most definitely no more awkward jerk off sessions. He has free reign of his hand and he intends to take absolute, full advantage of it.
Once Stiles is done at the doctor’s office he heads to the supermarket. Taylor Doose is behind the checkout, scanning and bagging someone’s groceries, deep in conversation that he hardly pays any attention to Stiles when he walks in, or he’s purposefully ignoring Stiles. Not that Stiles cares either way. He grabs a basket and starts his walk up and down the aisles trying to figure out what he wants.
Stiles is pretty engrossed in looking at the nutritional content of a pack of frozen chocolate chip waffles when he sees out of the corner of his eye, a guy walking around a corner and down one of the aisles. He also notices $20 on the ground.
“Hey, excuse me, excuse me!” Stiles calls, bending down to pick up the $20 chasing the guy down the aisle. “I think you dropped this.”
The man turns around looking at Stiles, and pats his pocket where the note must have fallen out. “Thanks. Most people would have just kept it!” The guy says, smiling as he takes the $20 note back.
Stiles has gotten to know most of the people around here, but he’s never seen this guy before. He wonders if he’s new, or just a resident that hasn’t been out and about much, more Boo Radley-esque.
“Well, had I not seen the money fall from your pocket, and it was just lying on the ground then it’s fair game. But I don’t need any karma coming back to bite me in the ass,” Stiles points out.
The man laughs says fair enough, and introduces himself as Ian and says he’s new in town.
Stiles instantly brightens up, glad to see that he’s no longer the newbie in town it’s almost a relief. Stiles tells Ian as much as Ian laughs.
“Well, since I don’t know anyone here, besides you, anywhere good to eat?”
“Luke’s Diner,” Stiles nods, “Just make sure to order quickly. Short and to the point, that’s how Luke likes it.”
“If you’re not busy why not join me?” Ian asks, continuing before Stiles can answer, “Besides, you gave me back my $20, the least I could do is buy you a coffee or something.”
Stiles finally agrees, because the temptation of Luke’s coffee is too appealing, it’s almost like a drug, more so than any other coffee he’s drank in his life. Besides, being nice to the new person in town wouldn’t be any harm, after all Stiles knows how long it takes the people of Wulfstan to warm up. So, he drops his groceries back where he found them, saying he can finish his shopping later. He doesn’t miss the way Taylor gives him a dirty look on his way out, because he didn’t put everything back where it was supposed to go.
-
In a village as small as Wulfstan, it’s not hard to tell when a new person enters the perimeter. It’s even easier to tell when the new person that enters isn’t a human but a werewolf - and one just recently entered.
Derek sensed it almost immediately. He was at Gypsy’s; going over the inventory of all the spare parts they had left over when he caught a whiff. It wasn’t unusual for a stray werewolf to enter Wulfstan; it’s just not something that happens on a regular basis. With that being said, they almost have to immediately get checked out, make sure they don’t pose a threat.
Derek knew he had to tell Laura, thankfully they were back to talking. She never said a word about what happened on the night of the full moon and he doesn’t know why. Laura is absolutely not the kind of person to ignore a problem until it goes away, instead she goes at it head on - why she was keeping her mouth shut about Derek and his interest in Stiles was beyond him. But Derek wasn’t going to question it.
He knew by the time he got to the Town Hall, which wouldn’t take long, that someone would probably have already told Laura about the new visitor, but he figured he might as well make the effort. Only, his journey to Town Hall took him right past Luke’s Diner, where he happened to catch a whiff again of said visitor, who was currently at a table laughing and talking to Stiles. Stiles, who was laughing in return, a grin across his face looking utterly relaxed.
Derek doesn’t know why, but he bristles at seeing the two of them together and puts it down to Stiles could be in danger. This guy hasn’t been vetted, he could be a rogue werewolf and about to harm a human being, a human being that has no idea he lives in a village full of werewolves and a human who is completely at the mercy of this new visitor.
He quickens his pace to the Town Hall, but instead of taking the staircase up to Laura’s office like he initially intended to, he takes the stairs down to the basement, typing in a code that gives him access to Stiles’ giant office and accidently spills some water on a circuit board. The circuit board starts to sizzle, a little flame igniting before it’s doused out and the computer screens go black. He only hopes he didn’t fry the whole system, just enough to call Stiles away from his ‘date’.
-
“So, what are you even doing here?” Ian asks, “You don’t seem like the … Type to be in Wulfstan, no offence.”
“None taken,” Stiles laughs, “No I’m not originally from here as you guessed, I work here though.”
Stiles likes Ian so far, he’s been nothing but nice and talkative. They’ve ordered their food, talked a little about what there is to do in Wulfstan. Stiles laughed saying he could hardly be the tour guide, considering he’s only been here about a month or so. When Stiles asks why Ian is even considering moving here, Ian falters a little before answering that he thinks it would be a good fit for him. Stiles has no idea what that even means, but nods his head like he understands, gulping his delicious coffee.
There’s not many people in the diner, just Kirk who is sitting by himself finishing off a bagel and muttering to himself something about his receipt bill not being right, Luke is overcharging him. Luke, of course is in the diner as well, and Stiles notices that he’s paying extra attention to Stiles and his new companion. Luke’s eyes track every movement Ian makes, watches as Stiles moves and talks - Stiles puts it down to Luke not liking new people. He’s only now barely gotten used to Stiles himself, let alone another new person. Even as Luke picks up the phone to call someone, Stiles still sees him staring. Strange.
Stiles’ phone buzzes on the table and he apologises saying he has to get it when he sees the caller ID come up and it’s Laura. Ian says no problem and picks up his own phone starting to scroll through it to give Stiles some privacy.
“Hello?”
“Stiles, there’s an emergency at the Town Hall, a system has fried or something I need you to get here immediately!” Laura half shouts into the phone.
“Oh, umm okay?” Stiles says looking at his watch, it’s almost 8 PM on a Friday, and he remembers Laura saying she’d only ever call him in late if there was an emergency and he supposes this is considered an emergency. “Be there in a sec.”
Stiles hangs up and frowns at his phone. “I’m sorry, I’ve gotta go Ian, an emergency came up at work.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ian shrugs, smiling, “Can I get your -”
“Stiles! I need your help at the Great Wolf Lodge,” Isaac yells barging in through the diner letting the door rattle as it shuts, cutting off whatever Ian was going to say.
“What?” Stiles asks in complete confusion, “What could you possibly need my help for?”
“My computer won’t turn on.”
“What?” Stiles asks again this time shaking his head - what the actual fuck is even going on. “Laura just called me, said there’s an emergency. You’ll have to survive without your computer for a little while longer.”
“Oh, she called?” Isaac says looking relieved, “Well then I’ll walk you. My computer probably just needs a good smack. Come on.” Isaac walks around to where Stiles is sitting and all but grabs him and shoves him out the door. He doesn’t even get a chance to say bye or thanks to Ian.
Once Isaac has so graciously seen that Stiles has made it to the basement he disappears again but Stiles doesn’t have much time to think about what the hell is going on, soon being distracted by the fried circuit board.
Thankfully, the main server hasn’t been fried, only a small portion that should be easy to recover within a few hours. At least it’s not going to be an all-nighter he thinks, and at least he didn’t have any plans. He would hate to miss out on a good night at House of Wolf.
“What happened?”
Stiles startles from where he’s leaning over the circuit board trying to unplug it without electrocuting himself, or worse yet frying the whole system - because he’s pretty sure Laura is more concerned with all the encryptions rather than Stiles’ own well-being.
“Dude! Heart attack, not to mention potentially frying everything,” Stiles screeches, clutching his chest, looking at where Derek’s standing in the doorway.
“Well?”
“I don’t know man; everything was fine when I left it this evening after work. Now all of a sudden it’s fried. God Laura is going to kill me if she thinks I left a drink down here or something.”
“I’m sure she won’t.”
“You’re her brother Gypsy, if you fucked up she’d probably forgive you because you’re family. Me? Not so much.”
“Can you fix it at least?”
Stiles nods his head and doesn’t see when Derek lets out a sigh of relief - because Derek would have been the one in trouble if Laura found out he intentionally fried the system to get Stiles away from this new, potentially dangerous visitor.
-
Mere seconds after Stiles was being shoved out the door by Isaac was Boyd bursting in to Luke’s diner and escorting Ian to the Town Hall. Ian thankfully didn’t put up a fight and agreed to follow Boyd; he did after all intend to see the Mayor.
Boyd didn’t make any small talk with Ian, but stayed close to him as they walked to the Town Hall, leading him up the stairs to Laura’s office. He opened the door, allowing Ian to enter first, Boyd followed in after. Sitting behind the desk in her chair was Laura, two other people in the room as well. There’s Billy, a large burly man with a beard and beer belly who works in construction - and looks like he could snap a person with his pinkie finger and Charles, an elderly man who is in the know of everything that goes on in the Village, and Village history.
Laura tells Ian to have a seat and gets right down to business, asks what he’s doing here. She had expected Derek to be in the room, he was after all family and would be the next Mayor should anything ever God forbid happened to her - yet he was nowhere to be found.
Ian puts his hands up in defence and says he comes in peace. He’s an Omega who’s grown tired of being on his own, wandering from state to state. He’s come into contact with too many other werewolf packs that either want him to join, and use him to their advantage - which would be to his disadvantage, want to kill him or worse yet come into contact with hunters who wanted to kill him, slowly using any torture technique they could think of.
Laura sits and silently listens, the rest of the room deafening quiet. They’re all paying attention to his heartbeat, it’s not impossible for another werewolf to lie but with the help of four werewolves all listening to one werewolves heart, they had the advantage.
When Laura had heard a loud banging sound, sending Boyd running to see what it was, coming back and telling her it was the system being fried, in addition to there being a new werewolf in town (thanks to Luke who called from the diner) Laura had thought the two went hand-in-hand. Laura had thought another pack, even just a lone werewolf had come to attack Wulfstan for whatever reason, and she intended to get to the bottom of it.
Except, listening to Ian tell his story without a blip in his heartbeat, no spike in his emotion or body language, she deemed him to be telling the truth. He genuinely wanted to stop being a wanderer, philandering from state to state and running into trouble at every turn he takes.
Ian had went on about how he heard of this pack living in Wulfstan that years ago used to welcome omegas, provide them shelter, a pack, someone to care for them and them to care for. He said he decided to set out across the country to get here, to see if they would accept him, it was worth a shot. Even though it had taken him longer than expected to get here since it wasn’t exactly the easiest place to find.
It is true, Wulfstan years ago when Laura’s dad was the Mayor, and even his predecessor used to welcome omegas and other werewolves looking for a pack and shelter. Wulfstan had become something of a safe haven for lone werewolves, more so in the past than now in the future - but the story was still around, apparently.
Laura was hesitant at first about allowing Ian to stay, although she can hear her father’s words in her head telling her to let him stay, back then the dangers were more limited, their numbers were stronger and they hardly had to worry about hunters, only other packs. Except now, now things were different and Laura had to be vigilante in keeping her village safe, she couldn’t show weakness not in front of hunters and most definitely not in the face of other werewolf packs.
But, she knew what was right, was right and she told Ian he was allowed to stay, but he was on probation and the village would be watching him like a, well no not a hawk, like a werewolf. Boyd quickly whispers something into her ear before she speaks again.
“Oh and another thing, stay away from Stiles. He’s important to this village and not to get distracted.”
Even though Derek was in the building, he couldn’t hear through the cement walls, not all the way down in the basement, so he didn’t hear when Laura had welcomed Ian to Wulfstan. He wouldn’t be impressed in the least (except maybe for the stay away from Stiles thing, but that seemed to be a general statement to anyone too interested in him).
Laura was also not impressed in the least that her brother was a no-show.
-
It’s almost ten PM and Stiles is still seated in his office chair, going through files making sure everything is still there and secure. Derek had been there for the most of the time, even helping if only limited by handing Stiles something when he needed it, or helping him disconnect the server so that it didn’t affect the rest of the system. Now though, Derek was nowhere in sight. Stiles didn’t blame him though, Stiles has been sitting there for the past half hour, staring at the computer screen muttering to himself and ignoring a silent Derek who was seated in another chair flipping through some old files.
“Here, don’t spill it,” Derek said frightening Stiles for the second time that night. He handed Stiles a paper cup filled to the brim with coffee - from Luke’s.
“Isn’t Luke’s closed?” Stiles asked blinking up at Derek his eyes adjusting to an actual face and not a computer screen.
“It helps to know the owner,” Derek rolls his eyes.
“The owner knows me and he certainly wouldn’t open up just for me.”
“You want it or not?” Derek asks gruffly.
“Want,” Stiles takes the cup and takes a sip. He lets out a filthy groan of pleasure and takes another sip. “Thanks Gypsy,” Stiles beams. He’s about to set the cup down on the table but then second guesses it, not trusting himself not to spill it and most certainly fuck up the whole system.
Derek extends his hand and takes the cup from Stiles. He holds it in his hand, sitting down in a chair and propping his feet up on the table beside Stiles. Stiles own personal cup holder, how cute. Then, Derek takes a sip of Stiles’ coffee and Stiles nearly has a heart attack, because no one touches his precious coffee. Derek doesn’t even like the taste of coffee, but can’t resist taking a sip, trying to chase the flavour of coffee mixed with Stiles, however faint it may be. He raises his eyebrow like he dares Stiles to say something - Derek did buy the coffee, didn’t he?
“Cooties man, cooties,” but Stiles is laughing and directs his gaze back to the computer screen, cracking down on his work.
8|