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steoevents · 10 months

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Steo Day 2023: Fighting for Love

Happy Steo Dady 2023 Everyone!!!

@steodiscord

Summary:

Scott stared at Stiles like he had never seen him before. “So that’s it? You love him and therefore you condone his actions?!” “Better to condone than condemn. Some of us have to get our hands dirty when others of us…” he sneered, giving Scott a significant look. “…refuse to dip their toes into the morally gray area. It’s where I live Scotty and if you can’t accept that, then I guess yeah, that’s that.”

Stiles sat at his desk, feeling numb. He couldn’t believe what had just happened, but he knew he wouldn’t forget it any time soon. He closed his eyes and let the conversation from not more than an hour ago echo in his mind.

“How can you defend him, Stiles?!" Scott demanded. "Your so called boyfriend tried to dissemble when I asked if he had killed Donovan, but the blood on his hands gave him away despite his denial."

With a serious expression on his face, paired with a sharp smile, Stiles looked up and didn’t cower in the face of Scott’s rage. "Why do any of us do anything? For love of course and Theo killing Donovan saved my life. So, of course, I'm glad he killed him and he told me right after he did it. What were you hoping to achieve by telling me this huh? Did you think I'd leave him or condemn him? Well, I won't because love is a battlefield and sometimes you pay with the blood of others or with blood of your own.”

Scott stared at Stiles like he had never seen him before. “So that’s it? You love him and therefore you condone his actions?!”

“Better to condone than condemn. Some of us have to get our hands dirty when others of us…” he sneered, giving Scott a significant look. “…refuse to dip their toes into the morally gray area. It’s where I live Scotty and if you can’t accept that, then I guess yeah, that’s that.”

Both teens were silent, the tension stifling until Scott flashed his eyes and shook his head as he took a step back. “Fine. I know how stubborn you can be. So I know you’ve made your decision but when the day comes where he breaks your heart, just remember I told you so and I won’t be there for you. For all I know he may kill you too.”

Stiles’s hands balled into fists and he snorted. “He won’t. You don’t know him.” Stiles scoffed, letting out a bitter laugh. “I think out of the two of us, we both know you’re not the one who’s there for people, Scott.”

Scott roared at him and in the blink of an eye, the pack bond snapped, leaving Stiles to cry out in pain. He collapsed to the ground shivering and shaking at the hollow feeling in his chest. “Scott?” he said, barely audible had it not been for the alpha’s supernatural hearing.

“You’re no longer a member of my pack, Stiles. I won’t have someone in my pack who is in love with a murderer. I won’t endanger them. You made your choice. This is mine.” With that, the alpha disappeared out the window, ignoring his former friend’s tears and whimpers of pain. He had a pack to look after and to protect.

Stiles felt a hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing, and let the feeling anchor him to the present. His mind left the memory behind him as he turned in his desk chair to meet blue eyes full of concern. “Theo.”

“Hey, Bambi,” Theo whispered. He stepped forward when Stiles encircled his arms around the coyote’s waist and kissed the amber eyed teen’s forehead. “I’m not sorry I killed him but I am sorry about Scott.”

“Scott’s an asshole.”

Theo huffed. “No arguments here but he’s an idiot as well. That pack won’t last without its heart.”

Stiles looked up at the man he loved and tilted his head, resting his cheek against Theo’s stomach. “Its heart?”

“Mhm. You. Stiles, you’re the heart of that pack, the glue, the one who brought everyone together and kept everyone together. They’ll learn that the hard way and by the time they finally figure it out, it’ll be too late.”

“Did you hear back from Brett?”

Theo nodded. “Yes. He and Satomi have a place for us to stay and we are already enrolled at Devenford Prep.”

Stiles chuckled. “Look at us, going to a fancy private school all because I’m in love with you and my best—ex-best friend—won’t accept it.”

“His loss, my gain,” Theo replied with a smirk though his eyes held understanding and empathy.

For a moment, Stiles hesitated to say the words on the tip of his tongue, but he chose to be brave. “I love you, Thumper.”

Theo inhaled sharply, his breath hitching almost painfully and he cupped Stiles’s cheeks, using his thumbs to brush the tears away. “Oh Bambi. I love you too.”

“Yeah?” Stiles said, his voice breathy and shaky.

“Yeah.”

They stared at each other for what felt like hours, eventually migrating to the bed and curling up together. As Theo slipped into a doze, he heard the man he loved singing under his breath so softly that he could barely make out the words but he heard enough to understand a lot about the other teen’s state of being.

Why does love always feel like a battlefield? A battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield Why does love always feel like a battlefield? Guess you better go and get your armor.

Theo pressed a kiss to Stiles’s forehead, his nose, the corners of his eyes and then hovered an inch from pressing their lips together.

Stiles’s honey eyes were glistening with tears as he met Theo’s eyes, a shade akin to light and pale Lapis Lazuli gemstones. “I never meant to start a war,” he whispered, his breath rattling in his chest. “You know I never wanna hurt you.”

“I know, Bambi,” Theo said, enveloping the mole spotted teen in a fierce and protective embrace. “I know.”

Since they were transferring schools, neither of them had to go to school tomorrow and then it was the weekend anyway. So, after texting his dad, Stiles curled into Theo’s chest and sighed. He was determined to stay in this bubble of safety and love for as long as possible.

Stiles felt rubbed raw, drained, flayed and exhausted. His heart hurt and his chest was empty of all but a single pack bond, a pack bond with Theo. Hot tears kept burning his eyes and he had to close his eyes in order to let the tears finally fall. He was grateful that Theo didn’t bring attention to it and simply held him tighter. He owed Theo a new shirt for how snotty and gross this one was getting but right now neither of them cared.

Everything was going to change now, well almost everything. They’d be going to a new school, joining a new pack, moving to a new house—Sheriff Stilinski remaining here—making new friends and more. However, as Stiles slowly fell asleep, he knew one thing wouldn’t change, and that was Theo. He loved Theo, had fought for that love and as he told Scott, love was like a battlefield. You either pay with your own blood or someone else’s blood. Both Stiles and Theo have paid with blood. They’ve paid with their own blood and with the blood of someone else.

✶ ⚔️ ❤︎ ⚔️ ✶

#steo #steoday #sapphireginger

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steoevents · 2 years

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First Kill

A late SteoDay entry @steoevents

You can read it on AO3

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Relationship: Theo Raeken/Stiles Stilinski Characters: Theo Raeken, Stiles Stilinski, Tara Raeken, Allison Argent, Tracy Stewart Additional Tags: Vampire Theo Raeken, Hunter Stiles Stilinski, Adopted Stiles Stilinski, Allison Argent & Stiles Stilinski Are Siblings, Enemies, Non-Consensual Blood Drinking, Blood Drinking, Seven Minutes In Heaven Game, Tara Dies, Murder, nothing really happens they just get obsessed with killing each other Words: 7329

***

Theo was standing in front of the mirror in their ridiculously big, ridiculously bougie, and ridiculously light entrance hallway, staring down his own reflection, checking to make sure his fangs weren't showing. Which he could feel they didn't do, but he did need to do something.

Soon Tracy was going to pick him up for school, which he found unbelievably annoying, but then he did drive his truck into a tree, so it was mostly on him that it needed fixing right now.

He sighed, impatiently checking his phone.

Tracy was running late, which meant he was running late.

Tara slid behind his back, as if he couldn't hear her coming in her heels on their fancy floor a mile away, putting a hand on his shoulder in one smooth motion, placing her chin on the other, looking at both their reflections.

"Are you nervous your little girlfriend will figure out you're planning to snack on her?" she turned her head to the side, letting out a tiny laugh that purposefully sounded like silver bells or something, because she was the perfect little heiress to the family. "Literally."

Theo rolled his eyes. He was so glad sometimes that he wasn't a girl and didn't stand a chance at having a place in the vampire hierarchy. If something were to happen to Tara, the responsibility was going to go to their cousin, not Theo, since he was a guy. Which was bad for the family, Theo guessed, loosing the status and all.

"It's not going to be her."

It was Tara's turn to roll her eyes, looking as annoyed as Theo felt.

"I don't get you. She's a perfectly fine mark, and you need to get your First Kill soon, Theo," their eyes met in the mirror. "It's not something you can put off for too long," she said with intention, as if talking to a toddler who didn't understand why one shouldn't play with an electric socket.

She patted his shoulder and left, leaving him even more annoyed.

He knew perfectly well that he had to kill someone soon. He wanted to. He had been waiting for this since he could walk, basically. He felt the burn of it in the back of his throat pretty much all the time even with the pills.

But he also knew that Tracy wasn't it. He wanted his First Kill to be perfect. It couldn't just be anyone. But he didn't know who it had to be yet, he didn't see anyone who would be what he wanted.

He just knew that he would know when he needed to know. And Tara rushing him wasn't going to do anything. Theo didn't even exactly understand why she was rushing him. The thirst wasn't getting super bad (maybe just yet), the blood pills their parents got him worked fine; he wasn't female, so he wasn't in waiting for the crown of vampire royalty, even if they didn't really have any kind of proper governing structure or anything in place. He didn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of powers his mother and sister cared the most about.

There was a honk from the outside.

"Your little friend is here," Tara almost sang from the living room, as if Theo wasn't literally standing by the door. "Still alive," she added in an exaggeratedly sad voice.

Theo almost growled, throwing the door open with Tara's infuriatingly ugly laughter following him out.

***

Stiles got out of his car. More like fell out, but whatever.

"I just don't get it, like, we've trained basically our whole lives. Well, you did, but still, I've done enough, too. Why can't we go hunting with them?" he complained, throwing his hands up, accidentally sending his car keys flying.

Allison looked up at their new school, covering her eyes from the sun, while he scrambled to pick them up.

"No, I totally agree, but I also think that maybe dad and Kate know better? Since, you know, they went through this exact thing and everything."

Stiles made a vague noise. They had this argument hundreds of times by now, both with their dad and aunt and without them. On one hand, yeah, maybe it was a safety thing, maybe they weren't ready or something. But on the other…

They have been training for so long, and when Stiles - an overly traumatised and overly excited seven-year-old back then - learned that he was getting adopted into a monster hunter family, he sure as hell had hoped for some monster hunting to happen eventually. And that was ten years ago. He wasn't that far from being an adult. Maybe he should be allowed to stab an undead thing here and there? Just a little bit. As a treat.

So while Allison may be willing to comply with what their dad said (and what their mom used to say), Stiles was going to kill something. Soon. He was going to get his First Kill in this town. He decided.

So he probably didn't have much time. No one knew how soon they were going to have to move, it was up to the Hunters' Guild. Stiles had better figure it out soon. It didn't have to be something big. Just a little zombie or something.

He finally retrieved his keys and looked up at the school as well. It was huge (especially for a town of this size), and bright, and somehow way too pretentious looking for a public school, really. The sun reflecting from the banner with the school football team's name (Stiles guessed it was football) was almost blinding.

"Okay, whatever. Do you have a scheme or something? Because this place is huge."

Allison sighed and took out her phone.

***

Theo was laughing at something one of the guys on the lacrosse team said, sitting up on the table, his feet on the chair, when he smelled something.

Something that caused the world around him to go bright red like it caught fire, and his all senses to become almost painfully sharp, his throat closing up with thirst. He had to squeeze his eyes shut, his hand gripping the edge of the table under him until it was almost painful.

Everything was so much, all at once, and he was so, so, so hungry, and there was so much food around him, and he felt his fangs press against his lower lip.

He couldn't… he needed…

He couldn't think. He just needed. What did he need?

He needed his pills. That was it. He was not about to ruin his First Kill by accidentally losing control. It was not happening.

His First Kill or his whole family's lives, actually.

He forced himself to let go of the table, then he dug around in his backpack by his side blindly, almost throwing it off the table, until he felt the little container with the very red capsules, almost dropping all of them onto the floor in his haste to rip the bottle open.

As soon as he felt the cold metal taste of the blood from the capsules cover his tongue in one thick explosion, the red in his eyes dissolved slowly like fog in sunlight, like the cover of the pill did in his mouth. He drew in a loud breath.

Josh made a compassionate sound from somewhere to Theo's left.

"Migraines are rough, bro."

Theo grunted in something resembling agreement, slowly peeling his eyes open.

Only to see a pair of brown ones staring at him, squinting slightly, suspicion in them clear as day. The sunlight from the huge window to the right made them look almost golden, like that fake liquid honey in those dumd squizzy bottles; those damned lashes looked like they were borrowed from a calf.

And that was when Theo knew. He felt a smirk slowly sneak its way onto his face. That was his person.

He knew who his First Kill was going to be.

"Who is that?"

Tracy, sitting in the next row, turned around, looking where Theo was looking.

"No idea," she turned back to painting her nails, disinterested.

Well, Theo was going to find this out. It was probably polite to know the name of the guy he was going to murder.

***

Stiles watched Theo Raeken from the bleachers. He and Allison were currently having to endure watching a lacrosse practice, purely for job reasons.

Only job reasons.

The fact that the guys looked mostly nice totally didn't do anything. And it absolutely wasn't as if Stiles actually liked sports.

Really, he wasn't on any teams just because they were moving around constantly, so there was no point.

"Look, there actually are painkillers that are pink, maybe he really has migraines?" Allison asked, showing Stiles a picture of a pill on her phone. "Or maybe he's a drug addict and needed his dose," She shrugged.

You know, like rich kids do casually, hung in the air.

Stiles turned to stare at her.

"So this sounds more plausible for you than the simple explanation of him being a vampire? And the pills were way more bright red than these are anyway. They were blood red, you know," he waved his hand at his sister and turned back to squinting at Theo on the field.

Only to immediately avert his eyes, totally inconspicuously, almost falling off the bench when he saw Theo squinting back at him.

Theo smiled and waved in all of his jock glory.

Stiles was totally not looking at him anymore.

Allison raised her eyebrows at him.

"Do you actually think he's a vampire or do you just need a reason to stalk the guy?"

Stiles actually fell over in his haste to stare at her accusatory and indignant. Like he needed a reason to stalk anyone. He could stalk whoever he wanted whenever he wanted.

And anyway…

"I have taste, actually, and he's… he's…" Stiles made a face and a gesture roughly in the direction of where he presumed Theo was on the field.

Because he wasn't looking.

Allison's eyebrows climbed even higher.

"Not your type?"

"Yeah!" the skepticism in Allison's eyes made him backtrack a bit. "Well, okay, that's a lie, but I'm not having a… crush on a vampire or something! Objectively, he's attractive, but that's it."

They were so lucky there was hardly anyone on the bleachers, so they didn't really need to lower their voices. He was grateful that vampire super-hearing was only a thing of legends.

He found Theo on the field again with his eyes, shit-talking some other guy on the team, by the looks of it. Allison might not believe him, but Stiles was going to prove all of them that he was right.

And get his First Kill in the process.

***

The party seemed like an easy way out. There are ways to get people away from other people even if they weren't that into you, and Theo knew all of them, of course. After hearing that there was a party happening already, he made sure that Stiles got invited as well, watched it happen. He didn't even have to organise anything. He didn't have any guarantees that Stiles would show up, though, but Theo was willing to take these odds.

Now he was standing in the living room, his usual entourage around him, keeping up the sound bubble around him while he scanned the room almost restlessly, waiting for Stiles to show up.

For now, he chose to ignore the possibility of this not happening.

Eventually, when Theo had to go get his glass of mostly juice refilled (he knew he wasn't going to get actually drunk, his body couldn't absorb human food that well, but it was going to have some effect, and Theo wanted to remember every single second of this night crystal clear) and almost went to do it (it was annoying to get through all the people), he noticed Stiles and his sister. Theo couldn't remember her name; she was also very pretty, and betting on her was probably safer in terms of how easy it would've been to get her away from everyone, but Theo knew what he wanted.

He jumped off the closed grand piano he was sitting on, turning to Tracy.

"You know what, this is getting boring," he stretched a bit, lazily. "Maybe we should arrange a game or something. Seven minutes in heaven?" He said distractedly, knowing full well Tracy was going to jump to organize whatever he mentioned.

"Oh yeah, totally," and she was off somewhere in the crowd looking for people and a place.

Getting into the kitchen to refill his juice, he found Josh there.

"I heard Tracy was arranging some game. Should we invite the new guy? Get to know them better and everything, you know," a lazy smile definitely got his point across.

After ticking off this point of his plan, making the cogs of the party move and the clock tick its way to the hour of First Kill, Theo moved forward.

In one of the upstairs bedrooms (he felt kind of annoyed about this, he had wasted some time looking) he found Lucas.

Leaning against the wall, the picture of casual disinterest, Theo took in all the weed on the blue duvet.

"You heard Tracy is organizing something downstairs?"

Lucas nodded slowly. His pupils were huge. Maybe there was not just weed here, actually. Theo didn't know and didn't care.

"Gonna go down in a minute."

Theo almost nodded, satisfied, but stopped himself. He knew he could trust Tracy to work quickly.

Lucas did the rest of the work for him. He smirked suggestively:

"Anyone you're hoping to get?"

Theo shrugged, feigning lazy interest.

"The new guy seemed cute."

Lucas laughed a bit.

After a moment, Theo left.

Now he just needed for Stiles to agree to the game.

***

Stiles almost sighed in relief when that girl that he had seen around Theo (Allison thought her name was Tracy) invited him to that dumb game.

Who the hell was even still playing it, especially in high school? But it definitely was a great way to at least try to get Theo alone with just a little bit of luck.

Which he made sure was going to be on his side by stealing a little amulet from his father's stash of witch-hunting trophies.

A small circle gathered around the kitchen island with the bottle placed as a central piece. Stiles wasn't sure what exactly the rules were, but he guessed it was intuitive enough.

Of course Theo and several of his little pack of small town cool kids were across from Stiles. He still felt betrayed that Allison had ditched him to go talk to some guy with a jaw very noticeably to the side, but then he guessed it would've been kind of awkward to play something like this with a sibling.

Anyway, Stiles was here now, looking at the admittedly attractive smirk on the admittedly handsome face of the admittedly hot Theo Raeken (he knew what he was doing with this pink sweatshirt).

Also known as Stiles' future First Kill.

Someone was talking around him, but Stiles wasn't listening. All his thoughts were about how Theo was going to perish into dust with Stiles' silver dagger in his heart and how he was going to get the traditional Argent hunter bullet tattoo afterwards. He guessed it was going to hurt, but he couldn't wait. He already knew what design he wanted.

Stiles snapped back when someone spun the bottle. He forgot to listen to the rules they used here, but it probably wasn't that different from everyone else's.

The bottle spun and then started to slow down.

Stiles could feel Theo still smirking across the table, so full of himself (and, probably, others, or at least their blood), it was almost annoying.

Theo was watching him, too, Stiles could feel it. He guessed it was a good thing for this particular situation that he managed to capture the attention of the local Main Asshole.

The bottle between them stopped.

***

Theo felt like cackling on the inside. The bottle did what he needed it to do even without Lucas' intervention.

It looked like everything in this game was on his side.

He knew he was probably going to get in trouble for that (he was going to be the last person seen with Stiles when they would find the body, after all) but he knew Tara was going to help him out.

His First Kill was a big family occasion even though he wasn’t an heir. Pureblood traditions and all.

He slid a finger along one of the shelves, walking into the huge pantry after Stiles, and while he did manage to keep his glee quiet, he could still feel a smirk tugging on his lips. At least it wasn’t the fangs. Yet. He could feel it coming, making him feel giddy.

"Who the hell needs to have that much food?" asked Stiles, looking around and scrunching up his nose.

He looked adorable in his little red hoodie.

This was like a fairytale or something.

Theo shrugged, eyes not leaving Stiles even for a second. He could attack him right now and be over with it.

But where was the fun in that?

He came closer, every move deliberately slow, like with a snake, so it wouldn't see you.

"Well, rich people, I guess. Ours is smaller, though" because they used it just for decoration, really.

But this one was really kind of bizarre, why was there a window at all? Wasn't this counterproductive?

Stiles just looked at him.

"Or people who believe in apocalypse."

Theo nodded. He knew how to keep up a polite small talk while waiting for the dinner to be served.

"Or those."

There was a beat of silence. Stiles huffed, impatient.

"So, are we going to do anything or just stand around?" he asked, his tone just shy of business-like.

Theo let out an involuntary laugh.

"You sound so eager, I'm almost insulted," he stepped closer, stopping just on this side of invading Stiles' personal space, of crowding him against the shelves.

Stiles rolled his eyes at him.

"Okay, I'm sure at least three quarters of the people around here who are attracted to guys would fall over themselves to be in my place, but I've moved around too much to do that. Every school has someone like you, and all of you are assholes, and I’m too much of one myself for our personalities to be compatible in long term, and I’m a long term kind of guy."

Theo wasn’t sure if Stiles took a breath anywhere in this little triade, and he was sort of impressed. Maybe it could've been fun to keep Stiles around for a bit. See what else he could hold his breath for.

He stepped closer, now positively overstepping a boundary, smiling at Stiles in the sweetest way he could manage, his oh she actually has a curfew, but you're such a nice boy, of course you can bring her back after midnight smile.

"So… you don't want to make out with me?"

Stiles made a face at him.

"I didn't say that."

He grabbed Theo's shoulder, pulling him in, close, putting their mouths together.

Theo couldn't for the life of him describe what the kiss had felt like. He guessed it was a kiss.

What he could describe was the feeling of a heartbeat just under his thumb on Stiles' warm neck.

Theo let his lips slide down, leaving a kiss on Stile's jaw, before getting to his neck, fangs just scraping the sensitive skin for a second.

Stiles moved in his arms, one of his hands leaving Theo’s back for a second.

Theo pushed his fangs in, the metallic taste immediately making him forget about the party going on outside. For a second his whole world became the fresh, warm, warm, warm blood on his tongue.

And then he felt something sharp against his chest, and it burned, and he stumbled back.

There was a dagger in his chest.

He looked up at Stiles, not quite comprehending.

"You… fuck…"

Stiles looked at him, weirdly, pressing a hand against his neck.

Everything swam in front of Theo's eyes, and then the fire alarm went off, and everything went black.

***

Stiles bullied Allison into not telling anything about the party and what happened to their father (or to Kate, which was more likely; they had always been close, but after Victoria's death they became even closer; also, it was probably weird that Stiles was calling Chris his dad, but Victoria would always remain Victoria because she died before Stiles felt ready to call his adoptive parents mom and dad). He wanted Theo's disappearance to hit the news before he would say anything.

He could see it in his head (half-delirious right now with the lack of sleep right now, and he didn't even know why he slept so bed, it was like he was having some weird dreams), how he was going to be all smug about it because he got his First Kill without anyone's help.

Well, almost. Allison did cause the fire alarm to go off, so in the general chaos no one would notice him sneaking out.

He was probably going to be questioned about Theo's whereabouts, but there was no body to be found, and it's not like he realistically could've had an opportunity to do something to it between them going into that pantry and him appearing next to his car and making sure to cause a whole commotion so the most people would see him being there.

Without any traces of fang wounds that definitely should've been there, but he was going to research this on his own time. He felt it. Even Allison didn't need to know he got bitten.

Anyway, it wasn't enough to turn him, that he was sure of, so he was probably going to be fine.

Most likely.

Possibly.

Maybe everything is different with purebloods.

He pressed a hand against his neck where he could still feel Theo's warm mouth.

He was probably going to need to stop ignoring whatever the teacher wanted to inform him about.

He heard a door behind his back open.

"Sorry, I overslept."

Stiles tensed up immediately and felt Allison whipping her head to look at him, eyes probably all huge.

Because the point of yesterday's plan was to make sure that this voice was never going to sound out loud again.

"Mr. Raeken, oh, it's alright, it's just a couple of minutes, go sit down," said the teacher, smiling at Theo like he was her favourite grandchild.

Stiles watched Theo walk by him, stared at his back when he sat down two rows in front and diagonally from Stiles.

This shouldn't be possible. He used a silver dagger, he had seen his father kill vampires with it before, it worked, Stiles was sure of this. Did he do something wrong? Did he not pierce the heart? Fuck, be was so fucked now.

Theo laughed quietly at what the guy next to him said, and then turned around, his smile morphing into a smirk when he caught Stiles staring.

Stiles looked into his sparkling blue eyes, and suddenly felt threatened. Now there was actually something dangerous in there, not just an asshole jock.

Now he wasn't safe.

He did ended up just teasing a bear in spring, didn't he? But how did it not work? What did he do wrong? Where was his mistake? Stiles' mind was all over the place now, and he couldn't understand what he did wrong.

Allison was tugging on his sleeve, trying to get his attention.

Theo winked at him and turned back around to the teacher.

"Stiles, we're screwed," Allison whispered urgently.

It was so nice of her to be willing to take the fall with him.

***

Theo rubbed his forehead. He just took a pill, and the world around him was slowly becoming less red.

This was not helping his general level of annoyance.

More like rage, really.

He still couldn't exactly wrap his head around the fact that not only Stiles turned out to be a hunter (who the hell else would have had a silver dagger just laying around), he also figured Theo out just like that and ruined his favourite sweatshirt.

Not it was a matter of… honor, Theo guessed, or whatever. Who the fuck Stiles thought he was, trying to kill Theo like that.

Not that he could actually kill a pureblood vampire like that, mind you, so obviously Stiles didn't know his hunting theory too well, but this was not Theo's problem.

Also, Theo had slept like shit last night.

Tara watched him from the door of his room where he was sprawled on top of the duvet.

"You know you need to kill someone soon, right?"

Theo grunted in response. He had no patience for her right now.

He could feel her rolling her eyes at him.

"It can't be your picture-perfect First Kill or whatever you got in that big head of yours, okay? It's just something you have to do, otherwise you're just going to lose control one day and give away all of us, you dumbass."

Theo thought about Stiles' blood in his mouth. About a knife in his heart.

"It's going to be what I say it's going to be, fuck off," he sat up. "It's my First Kill, I'm going to decide how and when it's going to happen, and it's absolutely none of your business. Also, get out of my room!"

Tara stared at him, full of indignation.

"The hell, Theo? You are literally setting all of us up. You have to think about the family's safety, not just yourself! I get it, it must be a complicated concept for you to grasp, but maybe it's time to fucking learn that the world doesn't revolve around you!"

"I know that!"

Tara threw her hands up.

"Is this about the guy that stabbed you? I'm going to deal with it, it's fine, you don't have to arrange your little revenge thing!"

Theo gritted his teeth. Of course she was going to handle it, she was supposed to prove that she was going to be a good little heiress and could keep this family safe.

Theo hated the fact that he was so screwed up last night, he actually told her everything.

She could handle everyone else. Stiles was Theo's.

"You're not touching Stiles. Now, fuck off!" He threw a pillow at her.

Tara caught it with ease, rolling her eyes, closing the door and taking his pillow with her.

"You're such a baby, Jesus."

***

Stiles absolutely hated going grocery shopping. Especially after he had spent the night having a very bizarre conversation with Theo Raeken. In his dream. His subconsciousness could be so unbelievably annoying sometimes. He guessed it had this in common with Theo.

Anyway, he felt awkward with other people knowing what he was buying for some reason. But he was actively trying to get on his dad's good side before he told him he might have totally told a vampire family that they were hunters and had completely zero ideas about how to fix it.

He didn't even know why Theo didn't die. A silver dagger into the heart was how it was done, Stiles was sure of it. He heard sizzling when it went into Theo's chest, so that must mean it did do something, just not what he needed it to.

So Stiles was probably in deadly trouble now, and so he wanted to mitigate the damage as much as he could.

He also didn't have much time, so he needed to tell his dad soon. Preferably yesterday, but he blew that chance. However, he didn't think the vampires were going to wait long. Even Theo in his dream said something along these lines. Which meant Stiles knew, but he also really didn't feel like catching the hell that he was going to get when he told his dad. Even if it was deserved and the least of his worries right now, really.

Now he wasn't going to get to officially kill anything until he was like 30. Practically ancient.

He walked out of the shop with his bags and almost dropped them while trying to get his keys, as per usual.

He felt even shakier today than he normally did, that dream last night felt so weird, it was still screwing with him.

It was kind of Friday evening, so there wasn't much place in the parking lot in front of the shop or in the street, so he had to park in the back alley, which was sort of convenient as he could put his bag on his knee against the wall to make it a bit easier to reach his pocket.

He heard heels clicking on the asphalt behind him, but didn't have time to turn around and look, as someone pressed on his neck, forcing him to lean his head to the side, and then there was sharp pain in his neck.

Familiar pain.

He tried to make a sound, and the person behind him (he could only tell that they had kind of small hands and were shorter than he was) hummed gently, as if to say "shh", and then he lost consciousness.

***

"I think your sister just kidnapped me," said Stiles, frowning.

Theo scoffed.

"She wouldn't."

Theo was lying. She totally would. He could even kill Stiles on the family's behalf.

Theo really had to get going with his plan, Tara wouldn't wait much longer.

"Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened, and now I'm dreaming about you again," Stiles sat down on the fallen tree trunk.

They were in what looked like an abandoned garden. Everything was kind of rotten. Theo didn't know why his subconsciousness was doing this. Also, it wasn't Stiles dreaming about him, it was Theo dreaming about Stiles.

"No…" Theo didn't have time to finish.

A bird flew right over his head, screaming like it was insane. Like the birds did around here.

It wasn't in the dream, though. So he woke up.

Blinking awake, he looked at the pool and considered it. Maybe trying to do his homework outside wasn't his brightest idea.

It's not like it was hot enough for the pool. It's just that it symbolized everything that annoyed Theo about trying to concentrate outside, which was primarily the noise, which wasn't apparently stopping him from falling asleep.

Everything made a fucking noise. Birds in the neighbour's little garden. The trees and the bushes. The insects.

The fucking pool and the fucking wind.

But he kind of failed to concentrate in his room as well. He kept thinking about Stiles' mouth under his lips. About the slightly rough skin of his neck under his teeth.

About his blood on Theo's tongue.

Theo slammed his textbook in his lap shut.

He had been this fucking close to his First Kill, he had to get it now. There was literally no other option. The fucker had to die, and Theo was going to be the one to do it. Maybe that was going to stop these weird dreams.

Like hell Tara would just kidnap anyone.

Anyway. If before Theo might have considered letting it go in case of a failure, after that dagger pierced his skin there was just no other option for him. Stiles was going to be his first, and that was it. As simple as this.

He might need to really hurry up though, there was always a possibility that the hunters wouldn't stay to actually try to destroy Theo and his family but choose to run, and then it was going to be a hassle to deal with. Also, there was Tara.

Theo couldn't really go away chasing someone right now, he had school. Tara, however, could do whatever the fuck she wanted.

He heard the sound of heels clicking on the tile around the pool and rolled his eyes. He knew this sound anywhere. That was just what he needed right now. Tara and her bullshit.

"Fuck off," he didn't even look up at her, slamming his textbook again, this time open, the edge jamming into his thigh, in order to scowl at it like he was actually reading it.

Tara laughed her silver bell laugh.

"Still being a huge baby, I see. Come, I have a surprise for you."

"Go away."

"No, come with me, it won't take too long, I'm sure you'll be finished really quickly," she said with a weird intonation and laughed again.

There was something in her tone that suggested that there was a nice virgin girl waiting for him in the woods to do whatever he desired to, or something.

Theo scowled even deeper. He wanted Stiles, not that.

Also, like hell he would be finished quickly.

"No."

Tara almost stomped her feet, Theo could feel it.

"Come on, you're literally not doing anything, just sulking here because you got too bored sulking in your room."

Jesus, his sister was so annoying, he would make a great heiress.

"You'll like it," she added.

Theo squized his eyes shut for a second.

Okay, Tara wasn't leaving him alone apparently. It was easier to give in, he knew it, he grew up with her. He closed his textbook again with a sigh and stood up, tossing it on the lounge chair he had been on.

"Okay, whatever. I don't have much time," that was mostly a lie if one didn't consider thinking about the ways to get to Stiles a hobby.

Which it was. Theo was going to go into town to try to stalk Stiles out today. He was working on his hobby, he didn't have time.

Hunting was a hobby, right? So were specific types of hunting.

Tara smirked at him. He felt that familiar almost rage at the thought that he smirked the same way. He needed to unlearn it, right this second.

"You're going to like it," she said again.

***

Stiles slowly came to. He was confused about what exactly was happening. He felt dizzy and there was something on his wrists. He had the weirdest dream about Theo again.

He slowly blinked his eyes open. Someone was yelling. He couldn't open his mouth. He thought there was something over his mouth.

"What the fuck were you even thinking?!"

Okay, that voice Stiles recognised, although the intonations were new.

Someone was very angry. Someone who was supposed to be very dead.

"That you were going to fuck all of us over with your idiotic stubbornness, you dumb ass!"

She definitely said it in two separate words.

"You…" it sounded like Theo couldn't find words to describe what she was; it looked like it too, his face flushed with, presumably, rage. "You had no right," he gritted through his teeth eventually, way quieter than the rest of their nice sibling chat.

Stiles guessed they were talking about him, and he did not want to know why exactly. But then, it was pretty obvious, considering his hands were bound and there was some tape on his mouth. There was also blood on his shirt, but he didn't feel hurt. So the marks must've disappeared the way Theo's did. Because Tara definitely bit him to knock him out.

Did Theo's sister bit him? She had to, Stiles definitely had felt this exact same thing before, and that was at the party.

Tara moved closer to Theo, getting in his face, hissing something too low for Stiles to hear over the sound of the creek running under the bridge Theo and his sister were arguing on.

Theo grabbed her shoulder.

Stiles decided that this was about time he concentrated on his restraints, since both of his captors were distracted. Although he guessed it was just Tara who was his main captor.

He guessed they were fighting now, judging by the sounds of it, like, physically, but he was too busy trying to pry the little blade he had on his forearm down and then cutting the tape with it.

It didn't actually take very long, and he finished right in time with the end of the fight on the bridge.

The last bit of the tape fell apart.

There was a gasp, a huge splash and a quiet shit, and then there was only the sound of the creek.

Stiles looked up.

Theo was standing on the bridge with his hands covered in blood and a couple of rips in his shirt. He was staring down at the water with huge eyes.

There was a spill of red on the dark water, slowly getting bigger and longer as the water flowed further away.

Theo's sister was nowhere to be seen.

"Tara? Theo? Children, where are you?" Someone called from somewhere in the woods.

"Shit," said Theo again.

That was an admirable lack of reaction to killing his own sister.

Stiles squinted at the water, one part of his brain trying to understand what exactly happened (he should have watched the fight), so he could use it later, since it looked like standard methods didn't work; another part of his brain was concentrating hard on keeping as quiet as possible, and slowly getting away.

It was pretty dark in the forest already, so it was mostly the sound he was worried about. Vampires were way cooler in books.

"Kids?" Someone asked, stepping from behind the trees.

Theo looked white as a sheet and frozen, staring at the person coming.

Stiles wanted to bolt, but made himself walk on silent feet. He desperately hoped no one was going to follow him in the commotion he could hear starting behind his back.

"Theo? Why are you covered in blood? What the hell happened?" Asked someone.

Stiles didn't hear Theo's answer.

***

It has been two days since Tara kidnapped him and apparently got fucking killed by her little brother. The fuck. Did Theo kill his sister over Stiles?

Stiles' weird dreams became more vivid, now actually seeming to happen in real places. Theo was there sometimes, not always, though. According to him, he was the one sleeping and seeing Stiles, not the other way around. So he told Stiles that there were technically legends about vampires biting someone the wrong way and getting a mental connection to them, but it had to be on the neck, and usually when a vampire did that to you, you were dead, so there wasn't much evidence. He also told Stiles what, according to him (Stiles' dream!Theo), had happened to Tara, and, well, Stiles guessed his brain made the only thing that made sense with his knowledge and what he saw about what went wrong when he tried to kill Theo. Apparently, according to his brain, purebloods could only be killed one way, and it had nothing to do with silver.

What Stiles did know for sure, from real sources, was that Theo was now a wanted person among vampires for killing a pureblood, and so now hunters were trying to get to him before the vampires did to use as leverage. What for, exactly, was a mystery for Stiles, but his dad did whatever the Guild wanted.

But Theo was Stiles'. Only his.

So Stiles thanked everything that was there to thank that his father was predictable enough for Stiles to guess his password.

Stiles knew what he was doing was wrong. It went against everything his dad taught him and what the Guild stood for.

He was screwing with the data so they couldn't find Theo.

He knew they were getting close, he saw the maps. He knew it was absurd to believe his dreams, but it was the best he could do right now. He recognised the place Theo was in in his last dream, and he also knew where his father was searching. He didn't understand how or why, but the feeling that Theo was actually there was so strong he couldn't even question it. He knew it was probably his brain mixing up everything and making him believe what he wanted to believe, or whatever.

But Theo was his responsibility now. He was Stiles' fuck-up, and Stiles was going to fix it. The Guild void fuck off and die, they weren't going to use the fact that Theo was already separated from his own kind for their own needs. Stiles was going to kill him.

Or at least try out the theory his brain provided in his dream. Although it was kind of hard to set up. But Stiles could always knock Theo out with a nicely placed silver dagger and just a couple of herbs.

Anyway. Stiles wasn't going to let the Guild get to Theo. Theo was his to kill and only his. It felt personal now that he even got kidnapped for him. And Stiles didn't like leaving a mess, and Theo was his mess.

So Stiles wiped a detail here and there, changed some numbers. He was going to be the one to get to Theo. He was going to be the one to figure out how to kill a pureblood.

***

It was just a couple of hours later that they figured it out.

Well, Kate did. Stiles had never liked her much.

He did expect them to find out, but not this fast. He hoped he had some time to set something up in order to clean his name or something.

He didn't.

What he also didn't take into account was how high profile this case was with the Guild.

And exactly how much of a bitch Kate was.

Stiles knew what it meant. They all did. He was going to be judged. And the Guild didn't take kindly to saboteurs. Especially the ones potentially connected to the enemy (he asked his dad about it, apparently, there were actually legends like that in their books, although Stiles could swear he hadn't heard anything like that; it was before Kate decided to check their data again).

Stiles didn't have time for that. He had a mission to complete, and the Guild was just going to take up his time.

So he got half an hour of sleep in, got some stuff and sneaked away.

He was going to deal with the consequences later. After he got his First Kill on his own terms and cleaned up his mess. Right now, he had a mission.

***

Theo waited, leaning against a tree near the edge of the woods on the side of the road leading out of town.

He knew where he needed to be. They had an agreement.

It was funny, actually, how both of them ended up the prey in their families' hunts.

Theo killed a pureblood. Stiles prevented a killing of a pureblood.

Adorable, really. Red sting and everything.

Considering that Stiles was now potentially the only human who knew how to kill someone like Theo because Theo didn't realise in time that it wasn't just his subconsciousness.

And yet, here they were. Both having to run away, both absolutely refusing to give up. Both determined to make the other their First Kill.

Neither of their lives was going to be easy until they figured it out. Surviving off pig blood wasn't fun, but it was a matter of principle now.

Stiles' ancient jeep rolled up next to Theo.

Theo felt a smirk slowly appear on his face.

Stiles lowered the window.

"Well, I guess we are both unbelievably deeply fucked now and are currently making it worse."

Theo rolled his eyes.

"We are both dead anyway, might as well die in the right hands."

Stiles almost smiled at him. It wasn't a nice smile.

Theo felt almost giddy looking at it for some reason.

He got in the car.

#steo #steoday3.0 #sunel0