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muddyorbsblr · 7 months

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bigger than the whole sky [rtc what if…?]

'relinquish the crown' masterlist See my full list of works here!

BE WARNED SPOILERS FOR THE LOKI SEASON 2 FINALE AHEAD

Summary: What if…you'd broken Frigga's memory spell without Loki? | Your search for your husband leads you to a peculiar void beyond the Nine Realms, to a place that vaguely resembles the Tree of Life that you'd only read about in historical texts.

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Word Count: 3.3k

Warnings: angst with no happy ending in sight; this is in the RTC universe so…themes of incest if you squint; Loki S2 finale spoilers; slight violence in the beginning [let me know if i missed anything!]

Things to be aware of: gonna repeat it again…Loki S2 finale spoilers ahead; no prior reading of RTC is required to suffer enjoy reading this story

"I will ask you one final time, you sadistic hedonist," you panted, taking a moment to lean on Stormbreaker while the eccentric tyrannical leader of Sakaar laid bleeding on the ground. One hand clutched his abdomen where you'd struck him, the other gingerly held his broken nose.

This wasn't something that you enjoyed doing, putting others through pain. But knowing Loki's history with this Grandmaster long before you two had met was easing your worry somehow that you were doing something reprehensible. There were pains that your beloved, even after all the time you'd known each other prior to your betrothal and marriage, were not quite ready to share with you.

His time in Sakaar was among those pains.

That knowledge alone was enough to get you to stop catching your breath, marching over to the Grandmaster and pinning him to the ground with the end of your battle axe's handle.

"Where is Loki?"

"Lady, I already told you back in the viewing box, I haven't seen your u--Agh!" You pressed Stormbreaker's handle harder against a tender spot on his shoulder, his body visibly showing signs of surrender before he started tapping on the floor. "Alright I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whined.

"Shall we try this again, then?" He did his best to nod his head, sighing heavily. "Where did you last see him?"

"I swear to you on my Champion's grave it's been millions of years for me here in Sakaar," he choked out, still audibly struggling to draw in his breath. "It was a time he didn't even know you yet. You probably hadn't even been born."

"So you truly bear no knowledge of my husband's whereabouts?"

"Your hus--I thought he was--"

"Mind your words, charlatan god." He let out another groan of pure agony as you pressed harder on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry! I--I really don't know where he is, Your Highness, I don't--"

"Then what use are you to me," you said darkly, another corner of your soul feeling ass if the lights had gone out. Another dead end.

You took a dagger out with your free hand, the Grandmaster's pleas of mercy sounding muffled as they fell on your dulled ears. Nothing he had to say could spare him now; to you, he was no longer a lead, a well lit path that could perhaps point you to where Loki had been all this time.

Now he was simply a shadow of your husband's past. Something so dark that he didn't even dare let you know about it.

Despair began to seep into your veins, a single question overtaking all other remotely coherent thought. Would you ever find him? Would you ever get to apologize? To tell him how you felt? How you'd always felt?

Before you could strike, a loud crack resounded throughout the Grandmaster's suite, coming from a glowing green portal that appeared in the center of the room.

"I would probably take that call, if I were you," the Grandmaster quipped, exhaling a large sigh of relief when you removed the weight of Stormbreaker off of him as you stepped toward the portal. Once the threshold had begun to close after you stepped through, he let out a final sentiment. "Please say hello to your husband for me when you find him."

That was more than enough for you to decide throwing your dagger into the small opening that remained, hitting the smug anachronistic bastard on his uninjured shoulder.

Then the portal finally closed, leaving you in a place you couldn't quite describe. All you knew was that it felt like a place you should never have been allowed access to. A place that should be beyond you. Beyond anyone.

Winding, glowing vines surrounded you, each of them looked and sounded as if they were teeming with a life of its own. If you listened carefully you could hear voices. Your voices. Infinite iterations of them. But one rang clearer than every other in the entire space.

"Did I do something that angered the Norns so fiercely that they condemned me to love a man I could never have?"

"I know what it feels like to kiss him. To touch him. To be desired by him. And it's ripping me apart to know that I will never know that again."

"The people will look at this union and see it for what it is. Sinful. Shameful!"

You tried to block the memories out of your mind, of you begging your grandmother Queen Frigga to lock your memories away. Of arguing with your grandfather Odin and with your father Thor because they were signing your life away to marry Loki. Of the harsh words you spat at them all behind closed doors.

Of the day the lock on your mind finally broke, after finding your journals prior to the spell being cast chronicling how you'd fallen for the god despite your better judgment. The head-splitting agony of your memories reconciling and finding their place back in your mind.

An agony suffered in your lonesome while Loki was away on assignment.

You scrambled desperately to think of anything else, to follow along the path of the vines and hear something other than your own mistakes being echoed back at you. These desperate attempts made you realize that the vines converged in a structure that eerily resembled an image that you'd only learned about in your youth.

"Yggdrasil?" you whispered in awe, your feet bringing you closer still until you found a parting just large enough for one to squeeze through.

Once you'd finally freed yourself from the winding vines, all air left your lungs at the sight that greeted you. A golden throne at the heart of the tree. All the vines anchored to the man -- or God, rather -- seated in it.

Loki.

"You've left quite a trail of bodies in your wake throughout this quest of yours, little Princess," he spoke, not moving even a fraction from where he sat.

He gave you a soft smile, tears beginning to form in his eyes as he stared at you. As if he couldn't believe you were here with him.

"It's been too long, my darling wife."

You'd rehearsed time and time again throughout your search for your husband what you would say to him once you'd been reunited. You would tell him how wrong you were for how you behaved throughout your betrothal, your marriage. And you would abandon every shred of your pride and beg for his forgiveness. You would tell him you loved him, that you'd always loved him.

And that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with him.

Yet somehow you could form none of those words. Instead you finally felt your body succumb to the tiredness brought about by the centuries you'd spent searching and laying waste to every imaginable corner of the Nine Realms and beyond for even the slightest shred of a clue as to where he could have been.

Instead you sunk to your knees, the tears streaming down your face as you stumbled over your words. "I remember everything. I had to find you. Tell you that I'm--"

"I know you are, my love. I watched you on the day the spell broke, the day you finally remembered. I wanted so desperately to come home to you. To not let you have to endure that pain alone."

"Why didn't you?" you blurted out, staring at all the vines he held in his hands. "What are all these?"

"Timelines," he answered you simply, giving you a minuscule shrug of his shoulders. "In every single one, there is an iteration of you and me. Some circumstances may differ, minor details. But at the heart of each of them, we live a life together. We find each other, fall in love. In some we even start a family."

"A family," you repeated breathlessly. The knowledge that each vine -- each timeline -- that was anchored to him held a variation of you and him, of your story, began to eat away at you, flooding you with guilt.

How wretched did you have to be that in your timeline you'd rejected him? Foolishly pushed him away with every mistake you made until finally it took you centuries to find him again?

"What happened?" you finally spoke after what felt like hours. "How did you get--"

"That is quite the long and harrowing tale, darling. In truth, it was a cavalcade of miscalculations and bad judgment calls, failed attempts of trying to save all these lives until I realized that the result would always stay the same if the equation contained the same variables."

"And what was that result?"

"Annihiliation," he answered you simply, giving you a misty eyed look. "Every single strand of time that I hold safe now would have been obliterated on sight. I know it. I've seen it. I've seen you disintegrate before me too many times than I wish to count. The device that once held them stable could no longer scale for an infinite number of possibilities, and letting countless timelines die in the name of the survival of a few was…unacceptable. The only thing that could carry a burden that great was--"

"A god," you finished, the words fighting you their entire way out, nearly choking you on the weight of them. The question that you wished to raise crippled you with its answer's implications. For you and your timeline specifically. "What happens if you let go?"

"It dies. Slowly. Drifts away until it eventually turns to ash." He began to make a motion, as if to approach you, until ultimately he decided against it. "This was the only way. It remains the only way. I must stay, and keep them safe. Watch our lives play out in derivatives of what ifs."

The selfish question that danced at the tip of your tongue plagued you with even more guilt. But what about my timeline? What about our life together? "There has to be another way," you grumbled, stubbornly shaking your head as if you were once again a toddler, refusing to accept the world for being what it was rather than what you wished it would be. "I could stay with you. I could stay and we can find a way together."

Your heart splintered watching him shake his head at you. "My beautiful headstrong wife," he breathed out, his tone filled with both fondness and heartbreak. "I can't in my good conscience let you abandon your life just so you could stay here with me. That would be too selfish, even for me. What would you have here?"

"You! I would have you. All these centuries I've spent in a desperate scramble to find you and tell you that I lo--" You found yourself completely choking on the words now, never having to articulate them before. "That I love you. That I've always loved you and I want us to start our lives together. I refuse to accept that after all this time I have to let you go. You can't make me."

"Asgard needs you, its future Queen."

"And I need you!" Your voice finally broke, sobs that you'd fought inside starting to bubble up. "It isn't fair that you hold all these different tellings of our story in your hands, but your story, yours and mine, ends in us apart. That you spend your days here, watching our life play out somewhere and somewhen else, and you're alone. Please don't send me away, husband," you began to beg. "Don't make me leave you. Let me stay."

He let out a sharp exhale, a tear escaping his eye, rolling down his cheek. "I've longed for the day I would hear you call me that," he sighed, a rueful smile gracing the handsome features that you were bereft of for centuries. "Truly I didn't think I would ever see you again, Y/N. My Y/N. I never thought that I would have you before me, and I hear those words you would only say in dreams with my own ears. Thank you, my dear heart. You have given me a gift in this quest of yours, in having a final moment with the woman I love…" More tears rolled down his cheeks when his smile widened before finishing his sentiment. "And the woman that loves me."

Your sobs filled the endless space, your body collapsing onto the ground as your grief overtook you. The notion of grieving for the living never seemed sensical to you until now. Now that the man, the god, you loved was calling this the last time you would ever see each other.

And you knew in your heart that with the power he wielded now, he could make that your reality without even lifting a finger. He could push you out of this void and back into any timeline of his choosing just as easily as he pulled you out of Sakaar.

The feel of familiar large hands pulling you up to your feet startled you, only having the briefest moment to look at your husband before he pulled you into a crushing embrace. You didn't think twice before wrapping your arms around him, holding him as close as you could and sobbing into his shoulder before realizing…

If his hands were on you, then why were the vines still in place?

"Loki," you sobbed. "Husband, please. No illusions."

"I can't hold you," he said, choking back his own sobs now. "I couldn't watch you break like this and do nothing." The duplicate he cast to hold you disappeared from your hold in a flash of green. "I've done it before against all my better judgment, I refuse to do it again."

"Then don't." Against your own better judgment, you stomped your foot, like a bratty child being told you had to go home. Which was almost precisely what this was. "If this is where you are and where you will remain, then this is where I wish to stay. With the god that owns my heart. With my husband." You blinked rapidly to expel the tears that blurred your vision before uttering the words that splintered at your heart even more. "I was made to be yours. You said that."

"And I yours," he finished, averting his gaze, letting his own tears drop to the fabric of his trousers. "In every timeline. We must take solace in knowing that among these infinite tales, one is ours. What could have been ours."

"What should be ours," you insisted. You made your way over to him, placing your hand on the side of his face. He closed his eyes, leaning into your touch, the sight breaking your heart further. "Our story deserves its bliss-laden epilogue, too."

"Not at the cost of everyone else's. Deep down you know this to be true."

"That does not mean I accept it," you grumbled. "Let me stay."

"You know that I can't. I will not subject you to live out the rest of your days here. Without friends nor family, and only a husband that cannot even hold you as company."

"But at least you would have someone to hold you," you argued, throwing your arms around him and letting your tears flow once more. "I can't just leave you here all on your own. You can't make me." You knew that he damn right could.

"My love," he sighed, turning his head to press a kiss to your temple. "I wish for you to live a long, and fulfilled life. You've lost so much time in your search for me only for it to end like this. I can give you those centuries back, as a final gift. Reverse the clock, undo the toll it took on you. Let this be the final token of my affection. My fealty. My undying vow."

"Let me keep my memories," you pleaded, already feeling that this would truly be your final moments with him. You did not need to turn your gaze to know that the portal leading back to Asgard was there, waiting for you. Perhaps he would simply nudge you through with his mind, knowing that you would refuse to leave. "Let me keep my remnants of you if that is all that I can leave this place with."

He nodded once. "Very well, little Princess. When you walk through the portal only the physical years will be stripped away. Live well, and remember always that I love you. My heart will only ever belong to you. Until the end of time."

"I love you," you choked out through your tears. "Husband." Your heart ached at the sight of his tears, not bothering to fight back the urge to kiss them away. "I will miss you desperately and always. In every step that I must take in this life without you."

"You will always have me by your side," he swore. "When you feel a presence you cannot see, in gentle breezes within a still room. I will always be there."

You continued to wipe his tears away, the god constantly kissing at your palms. Seemingly refusing to let you go, too.

"May I kiss you?" you asked, barely audibly, your voice unable to even completely form the words. "One last time?"

He gave you a small nod, and you leaned in to press your lips to his, trying to pour out your years of lost time and the future that you were doomed to lose in just a few short moments into that single kiss. You could feel that when he kissed you back, he did so with both all the love he'd never been able to give you before, and the love that he would never be able to bestow in the future.

It was a kiss of finality. A kiss of goodbye. A bittersweet final page in the story of you and Loki.

I love you more than words can ever say, his voice echoed in your mind. Goodbye, my love. My fated. My darling wife.

When you pulled away he was gone. And you'd been returned to your shared chambers back in Asgard. As he promised, the physical toll the centuries-long search had taken on your body were gone. No more scars from miscalculated skirmishes. No more bruises from Sakaar.

No more physical reminders of what you'd endured trying to reunite with the love your life.

All that remained were the memories of those years, and your time in his domain beyond the Realms.

"Goodbye, my darling husband. My love. My Loki," you whispered into the quiet of your marital chambers, sinking to your knees once more and letting out a shriek of pure agony, the sobs swiftly returning and wracking your entire body as you lay pathetically on the floor.

"Y/N??"

The sound of your mother Lady Sif's voice provided little comfort, but it felt like a familiar balm. "Mother," you said weakly, unmoving from your spot on the ground even as she rushed to you, cradling you in her lap.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" She stroked your hair while your tears soaked her sleep dress. You felt her wave someone over, and moments later you felt your grandmother Queen Frigga's presence in the room with you.

"I lost. I lost and I know not what to do now," you managed to say through your tears.

"What did you lose, Daughter?"

You'd briefly considered explaining your journey, from breaking the spell, to your journey through the centuries, to Loki's domain beyond the reach of space and time. To relay what had become of your husband.

Ultimately the words were beyond you due to your grief.

"Everything," you answered her, holding on to her tight as if you were a child again. This would be the only semblance of comfort you would have. "I lost everything."

A/N: I had to after that finale had me processing and feeling the big sad all day, I promise I'm working on 2 other stories based on the finale that have kinda better endings.

Also I sobbed throughout writing this entire thing, just for the record.

Now here's the song to add to the vibe:

'everything' taglist: @simplyholl @loopsisloops @imalovernotahater @coldnique @loz-3 @huntress-artemiss @salempoe @vickie5446 @athalialaufeyson @lokiprompts @kats72 @kikster606 @asgards-princess-of-mischief @lokixryss @thomase1 @mischief2sarawr @peaches1958 @lovingchoices14 @lunarnights95 @goblingirlsarah @iamlokisgloriouspurpose @creationsbyme @maple-seed @mjsthrillernp @ladyofthestayingpower @mygfloki @sititran @glitterylokislut @ozymdias @fictive-sl0th @lokidbadguy @mochie85 @silverfire475 @joyful-enchantress @elizabethmidnight2017 @holdmytesseract @smolvenger @gigglingtiggerv2 @lokidokieokie @superficialdomina @anukulee @kmc1989 @november-rayne @goddessofwonderland @buttercupcookies-blog

#loki x reader #loki x female reader #loki fanfiction #loki fanfic #loki laufeyson fanfic #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic #mcu fanfic #loki angst #loki laufeyson angst #muddyorbs writes #Spotify

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princessbrunette · 3 months

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rafe needs to know and assure himself he’s in control at all times like even when your making out and his hand makes it’s way to your neck he would say things like ‘I could just snap your little neck right now’ and readers just like ?? - 🤍

pussy trembled .

this is so s2 rafe coded to me. a little deranged and coked out and power hungry. after he says it you literally whimper n he squints at u tilting his head all rafe-like saying “what, that turn you on? huh? make that little pussy wet? that fact i could do anything i fuckin’ want to you, and you actually wouldn’t be able to stop me?” ummm 😊

#🤍 anon #rafe cameron prompt

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strangerstilinski · 1 year

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𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐈 ✶ Teen Wolf Rewrite

Stiles Stilinski / Original Female Character

TW | S2

chapter four

summary; as if the last month and a half hadn't been stressful enough — now there were a few more werewolves, a kanima, and a seriously disturbed old man added into the mix. but amber, stiles, and scott could totally handle this. it would be fine. everything was great.

word count; 12,392

chapter notes; the jeep is in need of fixin'. a lacrosse game under the lights leads to a night with mildly creepy photographers, two paralyzed werewolves, and a few too many near-drowning experiences.

masterlist

c h a p t e r f o u r

abomination

There was a sharp pain in the side of Amber's head when she woke. With a groan, she attempted to reach a hand up toward the injury but found herself unable to do so, her arm trapped against her side by a warm weight. She cracked her eyes open immediately but her surroundings remained unnervingly pitch black.

A terrified tightness slithered its way into her chest at the familiarity of it all — the uncomfortable combination of waking with a throbbing in her head and the inability to move freely feeling painfully reminiscent of her time with Kate Argent.

When she took a shaky breath, the smell that met her nose was rank, like that of filth and rotting food. She shoved at the weight pinning her arm down and there was a quiet groan in response. Just as she managed to pull herself free, her sluggish mind seemed to catch up with the situation all at once and her heart began to thump rapidly in her chest with worry instead of fear.

"Stiles?" She asked frantically, reaching out in the black void toward the boy beside her. She located his hands and arms relatively quickly and followed their path upward until she held his head softly in her hands, "Oh, god. Stiles, are you okay?"

She traced over his face with a gentle but shaky brush of her fingers, trying to locate the place where she remembered Erica had bashed him in the head with the car part she'd torn from the Jeep. Amber's fingertips found a small bump at the edge of his hairline over his forehead and she prodded the wound softly.

"Ow." Stiles groaned in complaint.

It was like music to her ears and her heart nearly stuttered in relief at the conscious sound from the his lips.

"Sti?" She asked again. She reached toward his shoulder and cupped her other hand at the back of his neck supportively as she tried to pull him into an upright position, "Are you okay?"

He groaned again and lifted his own hand up to his throbbing head as he sat up, "Ugh. That bitch."

He grabbed Amber gently by her elbow and dragged them to their feet, throwing open the lid of the dumpster they'd evidently been tossed inside of. The sudden brightness from the streetlight in the alleyway had Amber squinting with a wince as her head throbbed. She brought a hand up automatically to where she'd been hit, fingers brushing the tender spot a few inches above her ear. Stiles caught sight of the movement in the corner of his eye and turned to her with a frown.

"Wh- Did she hit you too?" He asked quickly, gently moving her hand out of the way so he that could feel the bump on the side of her head.

"Well, yeah. I like you an awful lot, Sti, but I wasn't just hanging out in the dumpster while you slept," She grumbled, taking another slow breath and nearly retching at the smell of the trash under their feet, "Oh, god. It smells so bad in here."

Stiles sighed, dropping his hand from the bump on her head and beginning to look for the best way for them to climb their way out of the tall dumpster. He eventually settled for boosting her over the edge with her foot in his hands, climbing over after her.

"I cannot believe Erica just- Just tore out a piece of the Jeep." Amber shook her head, anger filling her body as she recalled the way Stiles had gone limp after being bashed over the head.

"Oh, man," He grumbled at the reminder, "I'm gonna have to call a tow truck."

They'd only been at the auto-body shop for an hour, but Stiles seemed to be having a really hard time sitting patiently in the waiting room, his anxiety-fueled restlessness carrying him back and forth as he paced the small room and peered out at the mechanic through the window behind Amber's head.

"Oh, come on! What is he doing-" Stiles groaned, voice carrying slightly louder than his previous grumbled complaints.

Without another word, he pushed out of the waiting room and headed over to where the Jeep was suspended on a lift as a young mechanic worked underneath the back end of the vehicle. Amber followed only a step behind as Stiles shouted to get the other man's attention. When they stepped beneath the Jeep, both teens peered up to look at what the young man was working on.

"What do you think you're doing?" Stiles demanded, squinting up at the underside of his vehicle as if he had any idea what it was that they were looking at, "All I needed was a starter."

"-And that's definitely installed under the hood." Amber supplied, frowning as the mechanic revved the loud drill in his hands once more before turning toward them.

"Yeah, but.. It looks like the whole exhaust system has gotta be replaced here." The mechanic said easily, using the drill again and drowning out any attempt at a response with the loud whirring of the machine.

The incredulous look on Stiles' face had a sigh falling from Amber's lips as she reached up to pat his shoulder consolingly.

"Why do I get the feeling you're slightly overestimating the damage?" Stiles asked in barely concealed annoyance when the sound of the drill faded out again.

The handsome mechanic didn't even turn to look at them as he spoke, "It's probably gonna run you like.. Twelve-hundred, parts and labor."

"What?!" Amber exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Are you kidding?" Stiles shouted, "This thing doesn't even have a catalytic converter! And, yes! I know what a catalytic converter is-"

"Do you know what a limited slip differential is?" The mechanic asked, finally turning to face the teens with a slightly smug expression.

Amber let her eyes drift over to Stiles and found his mouth gaping, jaw slack as he tried to think of something to say.

"No.."

"-Yeah, could be more like fifteen-hundred." The mechanic amended.

"There is nothing wrong with Roscoe's limited slip differential," Amber cut in, scowling at the young mechanic underneath the car in annoyance, "It's been taking turns perfectly fine."

Both boys blinked at her in shock and she shrugged under their attention.

"I did a lot of research when I got my car, but that is not the point-" She turned her attention to Stiles and her angry tone immediately softened, "Why don't you go sit in the waiting room while I talk to.." She paused, turning to the mechanic with a charming smile, "Sorry, what was your name?"

"Tucker." The guy supplied, still blinking slowly at her as if she were some sort of mystery.

"Right." She smiled, turning back to Stiles, "While I talk to Tucker about exactly what the Jeep needs done. Cool?"

Stiles frowned, looking between the girl and the mechanic behind her, "Yeah," He agreed after a moment, "Yeah, okay. I'll just be back here.. Feeling slightly emasculated and seething with impotent rage."

He left the two of them alone and Amber turned to face Tucker with an unimpressed eyebrow raise, putting an effort into channeling her annoyance into something else, deigning to take a slightly more flirtatious and manipulative approach.

"Do we actually need a new exhaust system?" She questioned softly, taking a page from Erica's book by leaning against the greasy backside of a tire and crossing her arms in a way that she knew would push her breasts up from underneath the low neckline of her shirt.

"I, uh.."

"Y'know.. That doesn't sound like a solid 'yes'" She noted slowly, licking her lips and grinning when the older boy's eyes seemed to rise from her chest only to track the movement of her tongue. "Look, we both know that this car is an enigma. It's kind of a shitshow. It's nothing but old parts and duct-tape, but regardless, it runs just fine.. And all we came in for was the starter."

"I, um.. Yeah," Tucker agreed quietly, "But, I already started installing the new exhaust system-"

"-And I'd love to say I'll bring my own car here if it ever needs anything done but.. It hardly seems fair for us to have to pay for something when it wasn't actually a necessary repair, does it?" She asked quietly, holding back a grin when the boy in front of her shook his head minutely, "So, what's this gonna cost us?"

Tucker sighed, "The starter would've been four-fifty, parts and labor.. I could maybe get away with just charging the parts for the exhaust-"

"And that'll bring the cost to-?"

The man shrugged, eyes dropping quickly to her chest once again before he responded, "Overall, like, nine hundred-"

"Six." She countered quickly, knowing her barter was absurdly low, but giving it a shot anyway.

The mechanic's jaw clenched and he reached up to wipe sweat from his face with his forearm, leaving a fresh trail of grease along his temple, "Six seventy-five."

She grinned, bouncing on her toes, "Great! Six seventy-five. I'll let you get that worked out on paper and we'll just wait for you to finish up then!"

She ducked out from underneath the car and spotted Stiles standing just outside the door that led to the waiting room. When he saw the satisfied grin on her face, he perked up.

"What?" He questioned quickly, "What'd he say?"

"It's still gonna cost more than it should've but-"

He grimaced, "How much?"

"Six hundred seventy-five." She bit down on her lip, watching for his reaction nervously.

"You got him to go down by eight-hundred dollars?" He asked in disbelief.

She nodded and Stiles pulled her in with a hand on the back of her head, mashing their lips together clumsily, teeth clashing lightly with the impact. She laughed as they separated and Stiles' lips parted in astonishment before he spoke again.

"You are the sexiest girl alive. D'you know that? You said that stuff about the slip differ-thing and then you saved me eight-hundred bucks and I honestly don't even care how you did it because you are insanely hot and I'm the one who gets to make out with-"

"Well why don't you take me into the waiting room and makeout with me while we wait, then?" She questioned teasingly.

He jolted into action quickly but fumbled when his hand slipped as he grabbed the door handle. He brought his hand up as the door swung open and frowned at the shiny lubricant coating his palm and fingers.

"Oh, nice. That's real sanitary." He grumbled with a wince, "Quality establishment you're running here!" He called out over his shoulder into the garage.

Amber snorted, grabbing ahold of his sticky wrist and using the hem of her shirt to wipe the slimy substance away from the both of their hands. While she worked at clearing away the mess between his fingers, Stiles' eyes caught on a framed picture hanging on the wall beside them.

"Figures." He muttered bitterly.

She laughed at his tone, turning her head to peek at the photograph of a slightly younger Tucker donning a maroon Beacon Hills jersey, lacrosse stick draped over his shoulder as he posed for the camera.

"What, now you're mad that he played lacrosse in high school?" She questioned amusedly.

"Yes," Stiles said easily, "Because he was probably stupidly good. Like assholes always are.. Like Jackson, for example."

She snorted, dropping the hem of her shirt back down over her stomach, "You're stupidly good at lots of things." She told him softly.

"Oh, yeah?" He questioned doubtfully, "Like what?"

"Hm," She hummed quietly, leaning up onto her toes to ghost her lips over his, "Well, for one, you're really good at kissing-"

Stiles was quick to pull his phone from his pocket with his newly cleaned hand, "Hold that thought. Just- Lemme just shoot Scott a quick text-"

She laughed and leaned back to give him space, watching as he opened a new message. He huffed a strained breath, his fingers twitching clumsily over the touch screen but not actually typing anything.

"What the-" He muttered under his breath.

"Sti?" She questioned, reaching out toward his shaking hands, "What's wrong?"

He let the phone clatter to the floor and looked down at his trembling fingers, "I can't move my hands.." He muttered quietly, "Wh- Or my arms."

She went to squeeze his arm comfortingly but her own hand didn't follow the command to tighten around his wrist, her fingers still loosely draped over his sweatshirt.

"I- I can't feel my fingers." She announced worriedly, head snapping up to where Stiles was gaping over her shoulder with wide eyes, "What? What's-"

"No." He murmured, eyes flicking back and forth behind her, "Hey!"

She spun around just in time to see a tail swipe down beneath the Jeep to scratch across the back of the mechanic's neck, a dark scaly creature crawling down the side of the vehicle lift as Tucker collapsed to the ground.

Stiles' legs seemed to give out all at once and he stumbled into her, sending them both to the ground in a heap. Amber's head knocked back against the floor with a soft thump and she groaned beneath the weight of his body sprawled on top of her.

His cheek rested on her chest and he reached out a shaking hand toward his phone on the floor beside them as a loud mechanical whirring sounded from the open door that led to the garage.

"What's that?" She questioned anxiously, her head frozen in its current position of looking up at the ceiling, unable to move her neck no matter how hard she tried. The boy on top of her was facing the open door but didn't respond to her question, "Stiles, what's that noise?" She tried again.

"You're not looking at the car, are you?" He checked quickly.

"What? No, obviously not. What's going-"

"Help me-" Tucker's voice called out weakly over the noise.

"He's gonna die." Stiles spoke quietly, his own voice filled with fear as Tucker continued to call out for help from the garage, "Ah, god. The mechanic is gonna die like this is a Final Destination movie and I'm gonna have to watch-"

"Close your eyes." She urged quickly, her own eyes dropping down to the top of his head, wishing more than anything that she could move her arms to hold him.

"I- I'm trying to call 9-1-1." Stiles said frantically.

"Stiles," She said again, "Stiles. Close your eyes, okay?"

Tucker was still yelling, voice thick with fear. There was a high-pitched mechanical whine before the loud echoing clink of metal on metal and then, complete silence filled the shop.

Amber took a shaky breath and she heard more than felt Stiles do the same where he was laying on top of her, still reaching for his cell phone to call for help.

Suddenly, the alien-looking scaly creature that had been climbing down the side of Jeep was crouched over the two of them, tilting its head curiously. Amber whimpered as she looked into the yellow eyes of the creature and it hissed in response, its mouth dropping open to reveal a set of small, razor-sharp, pointed teeth before it disappeared — the creature gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

Whatever small dose of neurotoxin had absorbed through their skin to paralyze them wore off within twenty minutes. Stiles and Amber both moved to stand outside the building, wrapped up in each other’s arms as they waited for emergency personnel to respond to their call.

Amber's trembling fingers traced soothing patterns in the short hairs on the back of Stiles' neck. She could feel his own hands fisting and unfisting the fabric of her shirt between his fingers, his cheek pressed against her forehead.

"Are you okay?" She asked quietly after a few minutes of silence.

He puffed out a breath into the cold night air, taking a moment before responding, "Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

"It's okay if you're not." She told him, tilting her head to press the cold tip of her nose into his cheek, "Did.. Did you close your eyes?" She questioned cautiously.

"I did- Kind of at the last second.. But," He sighed, tightening his hands against her back, "I looked.. After."

"Stiles." She scolded softly, rubbing her thumb along the smooth skin at the nape of his neck.

"I know." He sighed, "I know. I c- I couldn't help it. But now I can't unsee it-"

"Hey," She whispered, hands sliding up to cup his jaw. She pressed her lips softly to the smattering of freckles on his right cheek, "It'll be okay."

He nodded minutely and she pressed a second kiss to his cheek, a little higher up this time, just below his eye. Her lips moved up to his eyebrow next. She tightened her grip on his face, tilting his head where she wanted it and proceeding to press obnoxiously loud, smacking kisses to his forehead, temple, cheekbone, and nose before settling a final peck into the corner of his mouth.

Stiles laughed and shook his head in her grip, "Stop that."

"Mm, I don't think I will." She grinned, smacking another loud peck of her lips against the opposite side of his mouth.

The colorful lights of a Sheriff's cruiser flashed as it pulled into the parking lot and an ambulance was turning in behind it before the police vehicle had even come to a stop. Amber took a small step back from Stiles as his dad climbed out of the car and stormed toward them.

"What the hell happened?" He asked them quietly, a stern look on his lightly wrinkled face.

"We walked into the garage and the mechanic was- He was crushed. Underneath the Jeep." Amber said, voice shaky.

"You guys didn't see anything else?" The Sheriff questioned, looking between them skeptically, "You didn't see anybody else leaving, or-"

"No." Stiles answered, avoiding his father's gaze.

The Sheriff looked back and forth between the two teens for a moment before he sighed and gestured with his arm toward the back of the parked ambulance, "C'mon. You kids come sit while we check things out."

They did as they were told and Amber settled onto the cold metal tailgate of the emergency vehicle beside Stiles. He took her hand in his quickly and rested their clasped hands over his lap as they watched his father and another officer enter the auto shop.

The two teens locked their fingers together loosely, hands still weak and visibly trembling with lingering traces of whatever temporary paralysis had taken over their bodies.

Eventually, the Sheriff sat down on the other side of his son with a deep sigh, rubbing his palms over his beige uniform pants.

"Do you guys have anything else you want to tell me about what happened here tonight?" He asked gently.

"We told you. We just- We walked in and saw the Jeep on top of the guy." Stiles repeated quickly, attempting to tighten his fingers around Amber's but not quite able to do so, "That's all."

"What's wrong with your hands?" The Sheriff questioned with a frown, gaze locked on where their trembling fingers were resting over his son's thigh.

"Nothing," Stiles said quickly, dropping Amber's hand and tucking his own hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt to hide the way his muscles were spasming, "Can we just get out of here now?"

"Look," Sheriff Stilinski said softly, "If there's something you kids don't think you can tell me-"

"You think we're lying?" Amber's heart thumped in her chest anxiously.

"No, of course not," Stiles' dad told her quickly, "I'm just worried about you both."

He looked between the teens slowly and Amber shrunk back slightly under his gaze, watching out of the corner of her eye as Stiles avoided looking at his father entirely.

Sheriff Stilinski took a breath, "Now, if you guys saw someone do this.. If you're afraid that maybe they're gonna come back and make sure you don't say anything about it-"

"We didn't." Amber said quickly.

"We didn't see anything," Stiles reiterated, "At all. Can we go now? Please?"

His father didn't immediately respond, frowning at them with a disappointed look, "Sure. But not in your Jeep. We're gonna have to impound it-"

Stiles stuttered a jumble of soft, incredulous noises and his father plowed on.

"Sorry, kid. It's evidence." The Sheriff told him.

"Alright, well.. At least make sure they wash it." Stiles mumbled angrily after a second.

His father shook his head and stood from the back of the ambulance, looking between them, "I assume I'll see at least one of you at home?"

Stiles peeked over at Amber in question and she shrugged, "I could stay over and then we could take my car to school in the morning." She suggested softly.

"I'll see you both later, then." The Sheriff nodded, beginning to step away but turning back to narrow his eyes at the two of them seriously, "You kids better behave. Don't think I didn't see the two of you when I pulled in-"

"Dad-" Stiles groaned quietly in embarrassment, "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," The Sheriff told him, "I am not ready to be a grandparent."

"Ah!" Stiles squeaked in distress, reaching around to awkwardly cover Amber's ears with his shaky hands, "I get it! I hear you! For the love of god-"

This father lifted his arms in surrender before turning away to get back to his job.

Stiles dropped his hands from the sides of Amber's head and she finally gave in to the wince she'd been holding back in response the pressure he'd put on the sensitive bump on the side of her skull. Stiles watched her flinch and his eyes widened in realization.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry." He apologized quickly, "Shit, is that where-"

"It's fine," She told him quickly, grabbing his hand when he reached up toward her head again and redirecting his movement. She pressed a soft kiss of forgiveness into his palm, "I'm fine, really."

He frowned at her, his thumb brushing softly over the edge of her lips, "We should ask Scott to pick up your car and come get us."

Amber nodded, dropping his hand to pull out her cell phone to shoot Scott a message with shaking fingers. She received a response almost immediately and sighed in relief, sending him one final text before pocketing her phone.

"He'll be here soon." She notified Stiles.

The boy nodded and stood up to slip into the space between her legs, hips bracketed by her knees where she sat on the tailgate. She dropped her head to his chest and took a deep breath as his hands settled over her hips, cold fingers slipping beneath the fabric of her shirt and ghosting over her warmer skin.

"Sti?" She questioned softly into the fabric of his shirt. He hummed in response and she continued, "Do I still kinda reek of dumpster?" She asked.

He laughed, burying his nose in her hair and taking a comically deep breath, "Honestly? Yeah, a little.." He said softly before stiffening against her, "Why do you ask? Do- Do I smell like garbage right now?"

She snorted quietly, nodding her head against his chest, "A little."

Nearly twenty minutes later, her bright yellow car finally turned in and Scott pulled into a parking spot at the edge of the lot.

She hopped down from the back of the ambulance and the two rushed over to the car through the cold drizzle that had begun to fall. As they approached, Scott slid over into the passenger seat and Stiles and Amber crawled in through the driver's side before settling inside the dry car.

"What took you so long?" Stiles questioned immediately.

"Amber sent me a list of like, a million things she needed from her house-" Scott defended, pointing to the duffle bag in the backseat.

"Sorry," She apologized, "I just figured it would be easier than driving all the way back over and I.." Her voice trailed off as she looked out the rain splattered windshield, eyes stuck on the reflecting flashes of blue and red emergency lights.

"You guys okay?" Scott asked softly after a moment, looking at his best friends with worry.

Stiles nodded from the center seat, dropping his left hand over the damp denim covering Amber's thigh as he mumbled assurances under his breath that they were fine.

"You were right," Amber told Scott softly, "It's not like you. I mean, it- Its eyes were almost, like.. Reptilian."

Stiles murmured in agreement, "But there was something about them-"

Scott's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "What d'you mean?"

Stiles frowned in thought as he tried to come up with a way to explain what they'd seen, "You know when you see a friend in a halloween mask, but all you can see is their eyes, and you feel like you know 'em but you just can't figure out who it is?"

Amber eyes widened at the accuracy of the analogy, her head thumping back against the headrest for a moment as she recalled the way the creature's head had tilted curiously at them.

Scott looked between them in surprise, "Are you guys saying you know who it is?"

"No," Amber disagreed quickly, leaning forward in her seat again to look at him, "But I- I think that maybe it knew us."

Scott sat on the bench attached to one of the tables in the courtyard, rushing as he attempted to finish an assignment that was due later that day. Amber was sprawled out on her back over the tabletop beside his open notebook, happy to let the warmth of the sun soak into the exposed skin of her arms and bare legs on the blessedly nice March morning.

Stiles approached his best friends, backpack slung over one shoulder, and Scott nudged Amber's thigh to get her attention as he noticed Stiles' presence. Stiles sat down in the empty space at the end of the bench and Amber propped herself up on her elbows attentively just as he began to speak.

"I'm so sorry about the other day," Stiles started slowly, speaking with his hands as his eyes flicked between them, "I'm trying. We'll get through this.." He reached up to rest a hand on Amber's bare knee as he continued, "Uh, I know because I love you."

Scott's face broke into a giddy smile and Amber rolled her eyes fondly at the sight of her lovesick best friend.

Stiles took a breath before he started again, "I love you.. more than- Oh my god!" He exclaimed, cutting himself off in refusal to recite any more, "I can't! You and Allison just have to find a better way to communicate-"

"Come on!" Scott frowned in disappointment, looking between his best friends, "You two are the only ones we can trust. Is she coming to the game tonight?"

"Yes," Stiles answered quickly, hand tightening on Amber's knee, "Okay? Message complete."

Amber flopped down onto her back again to watch the clouds as they floated by, "Alright, Scott. Stiles is here now. So spill what you were waiting to tell us about your boss."

He looked around the courtyard cautiously before whispering, "He thinks that Allison's family keeps some kind of.. Uh, records. Of all the things that they've hunted. Like a book."

Stiles leaned back and lifted his hand from Amber's knee only to clap his palm back down over it enthusiastically, "He probably means a bestiary."

Amber hummed with a nod of agreement and Scott looked between them with wide eyes.

"What?" He hissed in surprise.

"A bestiary.." Amber repeated, tilting her head to look at him curiously.

Scott began to laugh hysterically, taking a gasping breath as he looked between his two best friends, "I think you mean 'beastiality.'"

"Nope," Stiles disagreed quickly, "Pretty sure we don't."

"A bestiary is kinda like an encyclopedia, but it's full of information about mythical creatures." Amber explained in amusement.

Scott's laughter faded quickly and he sighed in irritation, "How am I the only one that doesn't seem to know anything about this stuff?" He asked with a groan.

"Okay. You're our best friend..? You're a creature of the night..? It's kind of been a priority of ours." Stiles explained incredulously.

"You know we've been reading up on this stuff. I mean, what do you think Stiles and I are spending all night doing when I tell you we're having a 'research night'?" Amber questioned rhetorically, pushing back up onto her elbows.

Scott raised his eyebrows emphatically and looked between them.

"Wh- Seriously?" She exclaimed in surprise at the insinuation, "You thought that every time we said we had 'research night', we were just, like, hooking up?"

Scott shrugged, "Well.. Kinda."

"Dude." Stiles scolded, "Is that why you literally always blow us off? Because you thought me and Amber were-?"

"I thought you were warning me to steer clear without actually, y'know, saying it," Scott explained, "Like a code."

"And the research nights before Stiles and I got together?" Amber questioned in disbelief.

"Figured that was you guys's way of telling me you were planning on finally making a move.. I thought you both just kept chickening out."

They both blinked at him in disbelief for a long moment.

"Okay.. I-" Scott spoke up again after the silence had stretched for a bit too long, deigning to change the subject, "If we can find this beasty-thing, and it can tell us what this thing is-"

"And who." Stiles interrupted.

There was another moment of silence between them before all three spoke at once.

"We need that book."

Stiles continued to run interference between Allison and Scott all day, somehow managing to catch Amber off guard nearly every time he approached with a new message.

"Yes!" He yelled in the hallway after third period as he ran up behind Amber and Scott. He flung an arm around each of their shoulders to support his weight as he heaved in deep breaths, "Allison's seen her grandfather with a book like that. Old. Leather. She's seen it."

An hour later, before lunch, he threw himself against the locker behind Amber with a loud crash. He draped his overly-warm, sweaty body across her back and panted heavily into her ear as he looked at Scott over her shoulder.

"She says," Stiles choked out with a wheeze as he fought for breath, "It has to be.. Office."

He gasped for air and Amber tipped her head to look back at him, reaching around awkwardly to cup the back of his head and pressing her lips to his sweaty cheek in consolation.

The next time he surprised her with a sudden appearance, both he and Allison miraculously managed to reach her table in the courtyard at the same time. It was the end of the school day and Amber had been finishing up an assignment with the intention of not having to worry about it later that evening.

She was sitting with her legs sprawled out in front of her on the bench when both of them stumbled up to the table in the same moment. Allison threw her shoulder bag down onto the seats on the opposite side of the table as Stiles sprinted toward them from the other direction, doubling over as he pulled in choppy, labored breaths.

He dropped a hand down to support himself, fingers gripping tightly at the top of Amber's thigh, seemingly blind to the way his pinky dug into her flesh beneath the hemline of her skirt and sent thrilling a spark down her spine. Pulling one of Scott's old inhalers from his pocket with his other hand, Stiles took a deep puff from the device, holding the chemicals in his lungs for a moment before gasping and finally focusing on Allison.

"Y'know, drug dealers have been using disposable cell phones pretty successfully for years-"

Allison shook her head, "My parents check every call, email, and text message I send. Trust me, they'd find it."

"Talk about a helicopter parent." Amber mumbled in a weak attempt to make a joke, desperately trying to focus on something — anything — that wasn't Stiles' sweaty hand. Or the way his fingertips were slipping beneath his weight and beginning to dig intoxicatingly into the meat of her inner thigh.

"Alright," He told Allison, ignoring quiet Amber's comment, "Can you get the book?"

"Not without my grandfather's keys." Allison sighed.

"Okay.. Okay, so we get his keys." Amber shrugged, licking her lips in thought as Stiles lifted her legs to slide onto the bench beside her, dropping them back down over the tops of his thighs as soon as he was seated, "Take him with you to the game tonight." She suggested after a moment.

"What?" Allison asked, eyes wide, "You want me to bring him to watch Scott's game?" She clarified in disbelief.

"Yes." Amber supplied easily, fingertips drumming on the tabletop, "I mean, he'll bring his keys with him, right? And the temperature is supposed to drop super quick over the next couple hours.. He'll obviously gonna be bundled up in his winter jacket, keys probably stuffed in the pocket.. Then you just play up how cold you are until he goes all 'elderly gentleman' and offers up his coat! We swipe the keys from his pocket, sneak into his office, find the book, and get the keys back before the game is even over. Easy."

"Right," Allison swallowed nervously, "Easy."

Stiles blinked at Amber in amazement for a moment before leaning in to press his lips to hers in a sloppy, slightly sweaty kiss.

"I can't believe you just came up with that plan off the top of your head," He mumbled against her mouth, giving her one more quick kiss before sitting back again, "So hot."

She snorted in amusement, fighting against the pink flush that began to rise embarrassingly on her cheeks from his praise.

Amber rushed home to change into jeans during the hour that the lacrosse team did warmups before the start of their evening game. It wasn't long before she made it back to the school, plopping down in the empty space beside Ms. McCall the moment she spotted her best friend's mom sitting in the stands.

Instead of focusing on the start of the game on the field — which, by the sound of the combined shouts coming from both the crowd and Coach Finstock, was not going well for Beacon Hills — Amber's attention was focused on where Allison and her grandfather were sitting on the other set of bleachers.

It was ten minutes into the second half of the game when she saw Principal Argent finally slip out of his thick peacoat, draping it delicately over his granddaughter's shoulders. Amber sighed in relief as she stood from her seat, excusing herself with an mumbled explanation about needing to go inside to use the restroom.

She kept her eyes glued to the other girl, watching as Allison reached into the pocket of the jacket before nodding her head in a silent signal for Amber to approach. As Amber stumbled from the bleachers with her eyes still focussed on Allison, she collided with another body, a pair of arms reaching up to steady her as she fell heavily against the padded material of someone's lacrosse uniform.

"Oh, shit. Sorry." She apologized quickly as she tried to regain her footing in the grass, looking up at the person who'd caught her.

Matt Daehler only grinned at her, "Don't worry about it." He said easily, readjusting his large camera around his neck.

Her eyes dropped to the device in his hands and her heart sank anxiously, "Shit. I didn't break your fancy camera or anything with my clumsiness, did I?" She questioned immediately.

He fiddled with the camera in his fingers without really looking away from her, "Nope, all good."

Her gaze was drawn to the movement of his hands and her eyes narrowed curiously when she focused on the photograph on the tiny screen.

"Hey, is that me?" She asked, leaning closer and pulling his hands into her own as she tried to get a better look.

"Oh, uh.." Matt stammered, "Yeah, um-"

Her eyes raked over the picture in a slow trail as she studied it. The floodlights shining down over the lacrosse field were harsh and blinding, but somehow, the composition of the photograph on the screen made it look softer. The light shined around her loose hair in a way that looked almost ethereal. Angelic. There was a soft smile on her face that told her the picture had been taken a few minutes before, when she'd caught sight of Stiles waving at her. Her cheeks appeared flushed, both from the cold and from the attention of the boy who'd been grinning at her from his usual spot on the bench.

"This is incredible," She told him softly, glancing up at him before gaping at the picture one more time, "Seriously. You're really talented."

"Oh," He sighed in relief, "Thanks. I'm really glad you like it. When you first saw it I was kinda worried you'd think I was being a creep or-"

"No, no. I totally get it," She said quickly, "You just. You find art in what you see in the world around you. No biggie."

He nodded and smiled, "Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly it. Just- Capturing the beauty around me."

She nodded, the obvious compliment going straight over her head, completely unaware as she looked out at the game on the field.

"Well, make sure you get some pictures of this beautiful game," She laughed, taking a step back, "Hey, if you get any good ones of Scott, will you let me know?"

"Yeah! Yeah, sure." Matt agreed easily.

"Sweet." She grinned, moving another step toward the opposite set of bleachers, "I gotta go, but I'll talk to you later. 'Go Cyclones' and all that!"

He bid her goodbye with a wave and she moved around the stands to sneak up behind where Allison was sitting, the other girl's hand dropping down casually to dangle beneath the metal seat. Amber gathered the large bundle of keys into her fist silently before stepping back and rounding the bleachers to approach the player's bench at the edge of the field.

In an attempt to stay warm, Stiles hadn't even bothered to change into his lacrosse pads or jersey. Instead, he wore a maroon tracksuit with the zipper tugged up to his neck, arms wrapped around himself as he shivered on the metal bench.

Amber leaned over his back and wrapped her own arms around his shoulders to give the appearance of a casual hug as she whispered in his ear.

"Keys acquired." She murmured quietly.

He reached up to wrap a cold hand around her wrist where it was draped across his chest as he nodded, "I'll come with you."

She frowned, loosening her arms to peer over his shoulder and shoot him a curious look, "You don't need to do that. You should stay here. You're kind of on the team, you know."

Stiles stood and her arms fell as he rounded the bench to grab her hand, already beginning to drag her away before Coach Finstock could catch them sneaking off.

"Oh, come on. Like Coach is ever gonna put me in." Stiles scoffed, tugging on her hand as they rushed back toward the school building.

When they jogged through the dark parking lot behind the building, he pulled on her arm and skidded to a stop.

"Hey, isn't that Lydia's car?" He questioned, pointing to a vehicle that was parked with its interior lights on.

"Yeah," Amber confirmed, moving around the backside of the car with a frown. She spotted Lydia dabbing at her eyes with a tissue and her heart twisted sadly, "I, um. I'm gonna check on her real quick."

"But the book-"

"You go start looking and I'll be right behind you," She promised, pulling the jumble of keys from her back pocket and pressing them into his hand.

His face pinched but after a moment he nodded reluctantly, tipping her head toward him at an awkward angle to press a quick kiss to her hairline before he ran off toward the building.

Amber stepped up to the driver's side window and rapped her knuckles against the glass lightly, causing Lydia to flinch and turn to look outside the car with wide eyes, dark smudges of mascara dripping down her cheeks.

"Lyds?" Amber asked softly, "What's going on? You okay?"

"Go away." She sniffled, turning her head to wipe at the moisture beneath her eyes again.

"Not happening," Amber shook her head, leaning closer and tapping her finger against the window in an irritatingly fast-paced rhythm, "Not until you tell me what's wrong."

Lydia sighed and rolled down the window, taking a breath as Amber leaned in and rested her weight on her arms in the open space.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy." Lydia whimpered, tightening her fist around her tissue.

"I could never think you're crazy, Lydia, alright? I told you that already," Amber reminded her, "Everything has been so unbelievably insane over the last two months. There is not a single thing you could say that would make me think you're crazy."

"I've been sleepwalking," Lydia admitted after a moment, "Sort of. Not really walking but.. I broke a mirror the other night and I don't remember it. I woke up in the backyard a few nights before that-"

"We talked about this," Amber said softly, "And you are not crazy. It's normal to have nightmares and anxiety and.. And I don't think the thing with Peter Hale is all that weird either. You've been through.. A lot."

Lydia nodded and sniffled again, "I just want it to stop. I want things to go back.."

"I know," Amber frowned sadly, holding out a hand in offering and letting her lips pull into a small smile when Lydia took it into her own. "I- I'm sorry." She said quietly.

"No," Lydia snapped, sniffing once and shooting Amber with stern glare, "Not this again. It is not your fault and I don't want your pity."

Amber's smile faded, "I-"

"I'll be fine," Lydia huffed, releasing Amber's hand to flip down her sun visor and wipe more thoroughly at her smudged makeup, "I'm just going to go home, take a bath, watch Legally Blonde, and give myself a pedicure."

"I could- Do you want me to-"

"Go inside and have your hot locker room hook up with your boyfriend. I saw you guys in the mirror before you came over here. I know he's waiting," Lydia rolled her eyes, a mask of indifferent perfection already slipping onto her face, "I'll see you tomorrow. Make sure he wraps it before you let him tap it."

Before she could respond, Lydia was rolling up the window and Amber was forced to pull her arms back to avoid them getting caught as it slid closed.

"Rude!" She told her friend loudly through the tinted glass.

"Love you." Lydia shot back amusedly, shifting her car into reverse, taillights switching on as she prepared to back out of her parking spot, "I'll text you later, okay?" She promised in a gentler tone.

Amber nodded in agreement and took a small step away from the car as Lydia backed up and turned to pull out of the parking lot. The brunette watched her friend go, brain clicking all at once to remind her that Stiles was already in the principal's office looking for the bestiary.

"Shit!" She exclaimed, feet carrying her toward the school in a rush.

She threw open the metal door at the side of the building and took a quick steps down the hallway, running toward the main office at the far end of the wing.

"Stiles?" She called out as she stepped into the office.

The door to Allison's grandfather's office was open, the keys still dangling from the lock, but there was no sign of Stiles. Amber's gut twisted nervously at his absence and she immediately moved back out into the hallway.

"Stiles!" She called out louder, peeking into the empty locker room as she passed.

Huffing loudly, she noticed that the door to the pools was ajar at the end of the hall and she took off again. She skidded to a stop at the doorway and slipped inside, hearing familiar voices as she rushed around the corner toward the pools.

"Holy God.." Stiles exclaimed quietly.

Amber ran up beside him, stumbling to a stop and taking his left hand in hers as she looked over at Erica and Derek in confusion.

"What's going on?" She asked the two werewolves, directing a dark look at Erica before turning to Stiles, "Did you find it?" She asked more quietly.

"Tell us what you saw at the garage yesterday." Derek demanded, eyes flicking between Stiles and Amber.

"I don't know.. It was creepy." She told him vaguely, "Scaly? Like a giant lizard or something."

Derek raised his eyebrows, settling her with an unimpressed look until Stiles continued for her.

"Alright, the thing was.. Pretty slick looking. Um.. Skin was dark," He explained, "It's like she said, I-I think it had scales. Is that not enough?"

Derek and Erica continued to glare at them and Amber bounced on her toes as she tried to remember more specifics.

"I don't.. Eyes!" She exclaimed suddenly, turning toward Stiles as she spoke, "Right? The eyes.. They were yellow-"

"-And slitted," He continued, "Like a snake or something."

"A lot of teeth," She recalled, "Small and sharp and seriously terrifying."

"Oh, and it's got a tail too." Stiles finished, raising his eyebrows at the werewolves with an annoyed blink of his eyes, "Now, are we good?"

When he didn't get a response, Amber turned her attention back toward Erica and Derek. The irritated expressions that they'd both worn a few moments before were gone, replaced now with a wholly unfamiliar look of nervousness.

"What?" Amber asked, watching them flick their eyes behind where she and Stiles were standing for just a second. When she still didn't get a response, she focused solely on Derek and watched as he slowly uncrossed his arms from over his chest, "Derek. What's up?"

"Wait. Have you seen it?" Stiles asked them, "You both have this look on your faces like you know exactly what we're talking about-"

There was a quiet hissing from behind them that had Amber and Stiles both turning around cautiously, movements achingly slow with fear. The creature they'd only just been describing was perched atop the railing of the balcony above them, crawling it's way downward in a slow trail as it watched the group intently.

A sudden, ear-piercing shriek came from the creature in warning and Amber flinched at the shrill sound while Stiles grabbed ahold of her shoulder to pull her to stand beside Derek.

The creature dropped to the floor with another threatening hiss and before it had even touched the down, Derek was crouched protectively in front of the two humans. Only a few seconds of anticipatory hesitance passed before the creature made the first move by tossing Erica across the room with an easy flick of its freakishly strong tail.

The blonde werewolf hit the wall with a sickening thud and crumpled to the ground, unconscious and sporting a small cut down the side of her neck where the tip of the creature's tail had nicked her. Derek growled angrily in response to his Beta being attacked and turned to shout a warning at Amber and Stiles.

"Run!" He ordered sharply.

He'd barely spoken the words before the creature scraped the sharp end of its tail across the back of Derek's neck and disappeared. Amber made a small noise of panic when Derek stood upright again and looked around himself in confusion, his knees wobbling unsteadily.

"Derek, your neck!" She warned him as a hand that she didn't even realize Stiles had wrapped around her shoulder tightened its grip to hold her in place while his gaze searched desperately to find where the creature had gone.

Derek blinked a few times and stumbled on shaky legs, reaching up to brush his fingers over the cut on back of his neck in confusion as he began to slowly lose control over his limbs.

"Ah, shit-" Stiles muttered in realization, moving around Amber to grab ahold of Derek's waist and steady the werewolf before he could fall.

Amber was at Derek's other side in a flash and she slipped beneath his arm to support his weight in a familiar position.

"C'mon-" She pleaded with the two boys uselessly.

Stiles quickly moved to mimic her stance and the two of them began to drag Derek away, stumbling as they ran, rounding the large pool. Amber tasked herself with watching their footing while Stiles looked around them, trying to locate the creature that had seemingly vanished.

"Where is it?" He asked, still looking around frantically, "Do either of you see it?"

"No." Amber told him anxiously.

"I can smell it, so hurry." Derek demanded. "And call Scott."

"Right, yes! Let's call Scott!" Amber repeated, reaching her free hand around to her back pocket. She patted down her backside aggressively when she immediately didn't feel the familiar lump beneath denim, "Oh my god. Where's my phone?"

"It's fine. I'll call him-" Stiles said quickly.

She took a shaky breath and nodded as they came to a stop at the edge of the pool, turning to watch Stiles pull out his phone and allowing most of Derek's deadweight to shift to her as the other boy clumsily unlocked the device in his hands.

Stiles suddenly fumbled to keep a hold of his cell phone, throwing himself forward in an attempt to catch it as it slipped through his fingers and down toward the tiled ground. When he leaned forward to save his phone, he bumped Derek's limp body, and the soft nudge was all that it took to send the werewolf's weight crashing into Amber where she was already struggling to support him on her own.

"Stiles!" She screamed as she stumbled backwards and tripped over the lip of tile at the edge of the pool.

She and Derek seemed to fall back through the air in slow motion. She crashed into the pool only a fraction of a second before Derek's body followed, his heavy weight knocking the air from her lungs as he landed on top of her, both of them plunging into the water and beginning to sink down.

Her waterlogged clothes were heavy as she tried to swim and Amber cracked her eyes open underwater, stripping out of her jacket quickly before her gaze caught on Derek. He was still sinking toward the bottom of the pool, unable to move his limbs, and she pumped her arms and legs aggressively as she swam toward him.

She fisted the front of his shirt in her hands as she kicked off the bottom of the pool, pulling him up through the water. Derek's weight was lessened significantly in the water, but by the time they broke through to the surface, she still gasped at the exertion. She managed only a small breath of air before his muscular frame in her arms forced her head back underwater.

There was a loud crash of something plunging into the pool after them and Amber could just make out the dark maroon of Stiles' tracksuit as he swam toward them. She was trying to keep Derek's head above the water, her lungs beginning to burn already and the muscles in her arms trembled as she kicked her legs furiously.

Derek's weight lessened suddenly and she broke through the surface of the water with a sputtering breath, coughing from the unexpected lack of oxygen.

"Where did it go?" She gasped as she caught her breath, looking around the pool through chlorine bleary eyes.

"I dunno," Stiles said quickly, spitting pool water from his mouth, "D'you see it?"

"No."

"Okay," Stiles said as they splashed around at the center of the pool, "Maybe it took off."

His words were followed by another loud screech, the sound echoing off of the stone walls in a way that made it nearly impossible to determine which direction the shriek had originated from.

"Maybe not." Amber muttered, spitting a bit of water from between her own lips when her mouth sunk down into the pool.

Following the shrill scream from the creature, the school was thrust into silence, aside from the quiet splashing of water, and the heavy breaths that fell from Stiles and Amber's mouths as they swam in place. Fifteen painfully long minutes passed before Amber eventually broke the silence again.

"D-Did you call Scott?" She asked, shaking her head to flick wet hair out of her face as she moved one arm around Derek's back to brush her fingers against the wet fabric of Stiles' shirt.

"Well, y'see, I was about to when I looked over and noticed you were practically drowning-" Stiles snapped, pulling Derek's arm tighter around his shoulders.

Amber bristled at his tone, "Oh, I'm sorry I was having a little trouble swimming while carrying over two hundred pounds of pure muscle. You're the one who knocked us into the stupid pool in the first place-"

"It was an accident!" Stiles defended.

"Will you two save the lover's spat for later and focus on getting me out of here before I drown?" Derek asked blankly.

"Oh, now the werewolf is worried about drowning?" Stiles questioned in disbelief, "Did you notice the thing out there with multiple rows of razor sharp teeth?"

"Did you notice I'm paralyzed from the neck down in eight feet of water?" Derek bit back immediately.

"God, can we all just stop fighting?" Amber pleaded, mouth dipping beneath the surface of the water for a moment when the motions of her legs slowed involuntarily.

"Okay," Stiles agreed, breathing heavy as he looked around them again, "I don't see it, so let's-"

"Okay, yeah." She agreed easily.

They began to swim slowly toward the side of the pool, only a few feet from the edge when Derek began to shout in panic.

"Wait, wait, wait! Stop!" He yelled, taking a deep breath when they slowed and began to swim in place again, "Stop."

"What?" Amber questioned, rubbing her face against the werewolf's shoulder in an attempt to push back the wet hair that clung to her face and blocked her eyes.

When her vision was unimpeded, the creature had re-appeared at the edge of the pool, crawling along the tiles on all fours and hissing at them lowly, craning and tilting its head side to side as it seemingly studied them.

"What's it waiting for?" Stiles asked worriedly.

"I- I don't know." Amber responded weakly, eying the creature as it paced around them.

Yellow eyes followed them as the creature crawled around the perimeter of the pool, circling for a couple of unbearably slow laps and watching them curiously as they swam. Stiles and Amber spun in time with its movements to keep the creature from their unguarded backs while it slowly circled the body of water.

After the creature had completed its third lap around the pool, it stepped closer with another low hiss. It leaned over the water's edge and dipped a scaly, clawed hand into the water before immediately pulling back with a louder, panicked hiss. It backed away from the pool's edge in a rush to watch begin watching them from afar once again.

"Wait, did you guys see that?" Amber asked, turning her head and trying to look over at the boys beside her.

"Saw it," Stiles confirmed, "I- I don't think it can swim."

"So great, that- That means we're safe as long as we're in here?" Amber questioned in annoyance, "We've been at it for like an hour already, I-"

"I don't think I can do this much longer." Stiles agreed through heavy breaths.

"So- So what do we do?" She asked.

Seemingly every muscle in her body was exhausted — overworked. Her stomach was cramping painfully, her legs burned from the constant kicking to keep them afloat, her arms ached and trembled as she alternated between aiding her swimming and holding Derek up higher in the water.

Stiles didn't respond to her question but his eyes did seem to catch on something near where they'd tumbled into the pool in the first place, his gaze locked on the opposite side of the pool from where the creature had dipped a clawed hand into the water.

"Stiles, what-"

"No." Derek interrupted her, aiming his words at the other boy, "No, don't even think about it."

"Wh-" Stiles spluttered in disbelief, "Would you trust me just this once?"

"Trust you on what?" Amber asked in confusion.

"No." Derek said, ignoring her.

"Look, I'm helping keep you alive, right now," Stiles snarked, "Did you notice that?"

"Yeah, I did," Derek snapped, "And Amber can't hold me up alone."

"I- I can try." She interjected weakly.

"When the paralysis wears off, who's gonna be able to fight that thing? You guys, or me?" Derek asked without expecting an answer and Amber hated to admit that he had a point.

"What, that's the only reason we've been holding you up for the last hour and a half?" Stiles questioned incredulously.

Amber squinted toward where they'd been looking when the argument had begun and spotted Stiles' cell phone, abandoned and laying oh-so temptingly right at the pool's edge.

"Stiles. You don't trust me. I don't trust you. But you need me to survive, so you are not letting me go." Derek snapped.

Stiles ignored him in favor of peering back at Amber over his shoulder with a nervous, unsure frown.

While their paralysis at the auto shop had worn off quickly, it hadn't been injected straight into their bloodstream the way it had when the creature had swiped at Derek and Erica. There was no way for them to know just how long the neurotoxin would last this time around. It could be hours.

Her heart pounded anxiously, but knowing that calling Scott was currently their only real option, she gave Stiles a small nod of approval. He dropped Derek's arm from around his shoulder without a word and it hardly took a second for the werewolf to catch on to what was happening.

"Stiles!" He yelled angrily as the boy swam away.

Derek had, unfortunately, been right.

The loss of another person sharing his weight sent the two of them back underwater nearly instantly. She repositioned herself behind him as he sank and slipped her sore arms beneath his armpits to lock around his chest, kicking her legs painfully hard in order to bring them back above the surface of the water.

They broke through and both managed to pull in a single deep breath before Amber plunged back under again, leaning back and keeping Derek's body above her own as she pumped her legs aggressively. Her head bobbed above and below the surface, only able to manage quick intakes of air, listening to the sounds of Stiles splashing through the water as he swam to his phone.

"He hung up on me!" He shouted angrily after a long minute.

"Try-" She choked out, spitting water from her mouth with a hacking cough, "Again-"

She could only assume that he was following her order, because once she'd gotten the words out, she was no longer able to kick her legs with the force needed to keep her head above the water. She was trying desperately to keep Derek at the surface, but after only a few moments, she realized that the both of them were just a few feet from the pool floor. At some point, they'd sunk deeper and deeper without her tired body even realizing it.

Her lungs burned as she fought to continue holding her breath and when her feet touched down at the bottom of the pool, she locked her arms lower around Derek's waist and kicked off once again, her mind focused solely on making sure Derek didn't drown, because he was right. He was the only one who even stood a chance at fighting the creature once his paralysis eventually wore off.

She heard the soft sound of Derek's head breaching the surface and the gasping breath that followed, the noise muffled through the water.

Her brain was growing fuzzy from lack of oxygen, head feeling as if it might explode, lungs burning with the desperate need to take a breath. She had a fleeting thought of letting Derek go — just for a moment — so that she could get some air, but before she could make the choice, the movements of her limbs began to slow without her permission, her head filled with cotton as her vision spotted.

There was another muffled yell as Derek's head sank underneath the water once again, Amber's grip falling slack and her arms slipping from his waist unconsciously as her lips fell open, the soft sounds of splashing water filling her ears as her eyes finally slipped closed to welcome the vast darkness that speckled the corners of her vision.

It felt like no time at all had passed before she was coughing painfully, chest aching with the action, water spilling past her lips through choking gasps as she finally pulled air into her lungs.

"Jesus, I'm sorry." Stiles murmured against her ear, arms firmly wrapped around her as he held her back to his chest.

"Derek." She coughed, tipping her head back onto Stiles' shoulder, not catching the anxious look he shot her when he caught sight of her lips — a startling shade of blue tinting their color.

"I'm.." He sighed and shook his head, "Take a deep breath, okay? I'll go get Derek. Just- Take a deep breath and I'll be right back." He promised.

Her breathing was shaky, but she sucked in as much air as she could before the arms around her ribcage were gone and she slipped back underneath the water. It took a few slow seconds before she realized that she needed to swim, and weakly began to kick her legs again. She broke back through the surface of the water, pumping her tired arms and legs as she spun in place in search of Derek and Stiles.

There was a loud splash behind her as they broke through the water again and relief flooded her when she watched Derek pull a deep breath of air into his lungs. She swam toward them immediately and retook her previous spot under Derek's arm.

"Never. Again." Derek spoke sharply. He didn't specify which one of them he was talking to, but it seemed to be pretty accurately directed at them both, so neither questioned it.

A hand reached up to clumsily pat over Amber's wet hair and she peeked over to find Stiles frowning at her.

"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly.

"'m fine." She mumbled, voice hoarse in her throat, the passage aching from the coughing combined with the lingering sting from the chlorine of the pool. They kicked to stay afloat for another painful stretch of time before she had a sudden thought, "I.. I should've swam over to get your phone to call Scott," She stated in frustration, "You're stronger than I am-"

"Unbelievable," Stiles interrupted, looking between her and Derek, "I- Not one of us thought of that?"

"Stupid." Derek mumbled vaguely.

"So stupid." She panted, exhaustion settling into her limbs again, "I- I don't know if I can keep- We need to figure something else out."

Stiles' head whipped around until he seemed to get an idea, "C'mon," He prompted, tipping his head back in a gesture to swim in that direction.

Amber followed his direction and leaned back, beginning to kick her legs as they moved toward the diving boards.

"If we can hold on for a few minutes to give our legs a break-" Stiles explained as they swam.

"Yeah," She agreed weakly, actively fighting to keep her head above the water.

She watched Stiles take in labored breaths, her eyes drawn to the tenseness of his shaking muscles beneath his shirt. Since he'd dragged Derek back to the surface, he'd been holding up a majority of the werewolf's weight by himself, trying to lessen the amount of effort Amber was forced to put in as she visibly fought to simply keep herself afloat.

She'd noticed this, however, and she heaved in a shaky breath as they finally got to the edge of the pool, "Not sure if I can even reach, but your arms are longer. You should grab on first." She told Stiles, adjusting herself beneath Derek's arm to give the boy enough room to reach up toward the diving platform.

Stiles looked like he wanted to fight her on it for only a second before he was reaching a shaking arm up, his fingers catching on the metal rung while Derek's weight pushed her head underwater yet again.

Somehow, she hadn't quite been expecting it when her mouth plunged beneath the surface of the pool, taking in yet another infuriating gulp of chlorinated water. Her chest burned at the sudden invasion in her body and she coughed on reflex, gasping and inhaling underwater, choking harder as Derek's weight suddenly vanished from her arms.

She reached her arms above her head as she swam back up, a pair of hands wrapping around her wrists in a tight grip and yanking her from the pool entirely, tossing her to the tiled floor at the edge of the water. She immediately rolled onto her side to cough again, a truly disturbing amount of water coming back up her throat and spilling past her lips onto the ground as she gagged and heaved.

She could just make out the sound of Scott growling loudly over the noises spilling from her own mouth as she began to push up onto her hands and knees.

A dark blur rushed past her to tackle Scott from his perch on the diving board and she watched the two roll away at the side of the pool. The scaly creature and Scott crouched in front of one another, each sizing the other up, and they both let out loud angry snarls as they geared up for a fight.

Amber crawled the few feet of distance between herself and where Stiles and Derek had been tossed from the pool. She reached them and took hold of Stiles' sleeve just as the sound of shattering glass rang out. Her wide eyes went up to find Scott laying in a pile of shards from the large mirror that he must have collided with.

Stiles was already sitting up beside her and he pulled her underneath his arm protectively as he shuffled them back a few feet. Her eyes went to at Derek as they backed away, relieved to find his arms twitching minutely as they began to regain feeling.

Scott scrambled up into a crouch, clutching a large shard of the broken glass in his hand as a makeshift weapon while the creature began to move toward him again. Amber's heart thumped wildly in her chest as she watched her best friend ready himself to fight the creature, and she couldn't help but grip Stiles' arm in a tight fist.

The creature hesitated just as it closed the final distance separating it from Scott, examining the shard of glass in his hand curiously. It tipped its head to the side as it peered at the reflection the mirror was casting, staring at itself for a few slow seconds.

Scott's wolfy eyes met with those of his friends over the creature's shoulder and he looked at them in confusion, silently asking if they were seeing the same thing that he was.

The creature let out another sudden screech before it took off, scaling the wall in a quick horror-movie style crawl until it reached the ceiling and finally jumped straight through the skylight, shattering the window as it disappeared into the night.

Scott let the shard of glass in his fist fall to the tiled floor with a clink that seemed jarringly loud in the sudden silence, dropping his head as he breathed out in relief.

"Holy shit." Amber whispered.

Her fingers tightened around Stiles' arm and it was then that she noticed her whole body was trembling. She rose to her knees in a rush and turned beneath his arm, bringing a hand up to his jaw and using the other to wipe away a few drops of water that were beading down his forehead from his hairline.

"You okay?" He asked her quietly, free hand dropping to squeeze over the wet denim covering her thigh as his eyes were drawn to the blue hue lingering beneath her trembling lips.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm okay," She promised, heart finally slowing slightly in her chest, "Are you okay?"

He opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by Derek's voice behind them.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks for your concern." He snapped quietly, pushing himself up with a quiet groan as he got back control of his limbs.

"I found the book." Scott announced, his face once again looking like his sweet, normal, human self as he approached to help his friends to their feet.

"Yeah, you sure as hell better have," Stiles snapped quietly, brushing away nonexistent dirt and debris from Amber's dripping body as they stood, "We almost drowned because of your inability to answer the phone."

"Where is it?" Amber asked Scott, attempting to comfort Stiles silently by taking his hand in hers. Scott held up a familiar keychain and she frowned in confusion, "It was in Argent's office?" She asked in confusion.

Scott shook his head, readjusting the keys to hold up the small USB drive hooked onto the loop.

"No shit," Stiles muttered in realization, staring at the device in annoyed disbelief, "The old man has a twenty-first century bestiary?"

"Did not see that coming." Amber agreed, rolling up onto the balls of her feet after a moment, "We gonna go plug that baby in and see what's on it?" She questioned excitedly.

"Definitely." Scott told her, moving around them to head back out of the school.

Amber hesitated, the action pulling on Stiles' arm as he moved to follow Scott. She turned to look at Derek one more time, "Seriously, though. You gonna be okay?" She asked softly.

He nodded, stretching his arms and shaking out his hands, "Gonna help Erica."

Amber and Stiles both looked over to where the blonde was still laying on the ground at the other end of the pool, her fingers only just beginning to twitch with regained feeling.

With a nod, Amber allowed Stiles to lead her outside after Scott, the three crowding around the hood of her car, laptop open as Scott flicked through the folder they'd pulled from the USB drive.

It appeared to be scans of what had originally been a hard copy of a book, each page filled with old calligraphy and drawings. Every scan they clicked through was completely unreadable, pages upon pages of information written using an alphabet that didn't remotely resemble the Roman one — Paragraphs of an ancient language that they couldn't even begin to determine the origin of.

"Is that even a language?" Stiles finally asked in frustration as Scott continued to click through the pages.

"I- I dunno," Amber muttered, squinting at the bright screen, "I mean, it's gotta be, right?"

Scott sighed, clicking at the trackpad more aggressively now, "How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?"

"It's called a Kanima." Derek supplied suddenly, walking down the path to the parking lot with Erica at his side.

"You knew the whole time." Stiles accused, huffing quietly as Amber slipped a hand up to grip the back of his neck softly.

"No," Derek glared as he stopped in front of them, "Only when it was confused by its own reflection."

"It.. Doesn't know what it is?" Amber questioned.

Derek nodded, "Or who."

"Well what else do you know?" Stiles asked with a barely suppressed eye roll.

"Just stories.. Rumors." Derek told them vaguely.

"But it's like us?" Scott questioned, looking between himself, Erica, and Derek.

"A shapeshifter, yes. But-" Derek sighed, shaking his head as he searched for the right words, "It's- It's not right. It's like, uh-"

"An abomination?" Stiles supplied.

Derek nodded silently before simply turning and beginning to lead Erica away with a hand on her back.

"Derek!" Scott called, waiting until the two werewolves turned back around before continuing, "We need to work together on this.. Maybe even tell the Argents-"

"You trust them?" Derek asked in disbelief, his eyes flicking over to level Amber with a knowing look.

"Are.. Are you kidding?" She asked incredulously, voice rising, "Derek, nobody trusts anyone. That's kind of the whole problem!" She finally snapped, looking between her best friends and the older werewolf with wild eyes as her irritation peaked, "You don't trust them. They don't trust you.. And then, while we're all dicking around, wasting time arguing about who's on what side, there's something scarier, stronger, and faster than any of you and- And it's actually killing people!" She yelled, "And after all this, we still don't even know anything about it because we can't read the fucking book!"

Stiles and Scott had each dropped a hand onto her shoulders at some point during her rant and they pulled her back from where she'd absentmindedly taken a few small steps forward.

"I know one thing," Derek told her darkly as he began to lead Erica away again, "When I find it, I'm gonna kill it."

#stiles stilinski x oc #stiles stilinksi fanfiction #stilesfic #stiles fanfiction #stiles x reader #teen wolf fanfiction #teen wolf fic #2x04 #mieczyslaw stilinski #selenophiles #*

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eldragon-x · 1 year

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bill nye the cipher guy. from the gravity falls. for the ask game

the scrunkly. thank u ray.

First impression I saw that weird jokester creature with an eerie forboding aura for the first time at age 11 in his debut episode and knew right away he was literally one of the best characters created.

Impression now I have nostalgic attachment to him but also just genuine appreciation. He sticks to me like a burdock. Funfact: As a kid I actually only watched the first two eps of s2 and he specifically was part of the reason I remembered + caught up + got back into the show later not too long before the finale aired.

Favorite moment There's defenetly more impactful ones, but one that I just enjoy is him teasing Ford and playing piano + singing. He's just a silly guy your honor (literally causing the apocalypse). It's also neat because this is a scene from the finale and We'll Meet Again is, in the context of GF, associated with the hints about Bill not being dead for good.

Idea for a story If only I had solid ideas and more confidence in my writing and dedication to write multi-chapter fics I'd write out my own interpretation of Bill's backstory. But alas,

Unpopular opinion Idk if this is still a hot take in the year of 2023 but it's kinda. annoying how people insists that it's canon that Bill is a one-dimensional character who cannot have a shred of a sympathetic trait or any chance of a redemption when the Axolotl Poem is like:

Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy a pure evil villain who's simply entertaining (Jack Horner of Puss in Boots fame literally pokes fun of villains with tragic backstories and it's great), but there is canonically More to Bill and it's so interesting but never overshadows how horrid he is. If you ask me, I think you'd have to drag him kicking and screaming towards self-improvement but fact is that he's getting another chance at life (with the expectation to make up for his atrocities) and we can only imagine how that plays out. And I don't think this is in an ominous way because the arcs of the protagonists are finished and God knows they put up enough with his shit lol.

I also want to mention here that when I rewatched the show recently I was honestly worried he'd just be boring to me because a funny but flat (hehe) character will probably only hold my attention for so long but then I remembered The Agonies and was like ah i see. i'm not getting rid of him.

Favorite relationship His ass has not had a genuine relationship with anyone in eons but I like when ppl portray him and Pyronica as besties. Girlboss solidarity.

Oh Also I want to know his relation with the Axolotl so bad because they're implied to be like. the opposite good/creative force to his evil/destruction in the multiverse and yet they are the one who revives him in the first place for reasons we can only guess.

Favorite headcanon I can't think of anything else so here's literally just a random hc from me: His eyesight sucks because he starts squinting in that one scene in Dreamscaperers while trying to read something + the irony of an omniscient being having shit eyesight is amusing to me + I have poor eyesight and love projecting. Get a monocle king.

#gf #bill tag #tag edit I shouldve mentioned ford in the relationship section. theyre worsties.

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honeyslow · 11 months

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okay so im 4.5 episodes into yellowjackets and im so excited for the lottienat to start lottienat-ing i can see the mf vision. saw a huge spoiler for what i assume?? to be s2? today on tiktok broke my heart but alas i shall soldier on

ooh have fun!!!!! if u haven't seen the vision from the pilot they Will lottienat more in s2 but it's there from the start if u squint <3

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raayllum · 4 years

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2x05 // 3x04

#tdp #tdp callum #callum tdp #the dragon prince #rayllum #if u squint??#s2 #mine #screencaps #parallels #callum #2x05 #multi #this poor poor boy #s3 #i just love how much consistency there is in his gestures #3x04

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batarangsoundsdumb · 3 years

Text

yet another ask dump yeehaw!

do you ever think that jay's mother was one of those bitch who believes in horoscope and tarots and things like that and so he believes in these things too, or it is just me projecting?

sheila haywood took one look at jason's birthchart said 'nah this won't do' and left.

Wait, but what happens when the justice league does find out that Bruce and John fucked? Lmao it sounds like it would be hilarious, really, I don’t want a justice league that doesn’t make fun of Bruce for like his entire life.

barry runs out of the meeting immediately and comes back with an entire sti testing kit. diana fully seriously wants bruce to get tested while bruce is sitting there like 'come on guys, you're being ridiculous, i already checked twice'

john is standing in the corner clearly offended while bruce is just like 'don't even say anything, constantine, you fucked a shark'

tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.

on the one hand, good for him, on the other hand, bro, how do you still have a secret identity when your superhero name is just your last name,,,,

Your fic on ao3 was GOLD PLEASE CONTINUE I loved Dinah's cameo btw ( @purple-vixen

thanks so much! i already continued but this ask is like 10 years old because i'm a notorious procrastinator (also yes! i love dinah so much aahhhhhhhhhhhh)

I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.

bruce internally: holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit bruce externally: get out of my city, alien

AHHH ur multimedia fic is the only thing that brings me happiness anymore continue it forever pls

uhh thanks, but can't continue it forever because my attention span is that of a toddler on crack on a good day and i can't function without at least 10 things going on at the same time and music in the background

Oi, so I'm getting into dc and watching batman the animated series, and they use fruitcake a lot. Which I thought was very funny and wanted to share w you - Denilla

wait like fruitcake (food) or fruitcake (derogatory) ?

young justice 🤝 teen titans slut shaming batman

tim drake and dick grayson to their respective teams 'you guys stop it, that's my dad'

Happyhoganon: If an eighty year old Batman had fought crime in Gotham City for decades and the only threats to him and the city lately are a wheel chair bounded Penguin, your usual purse snatchers and a few con artists popping up every now and then, how well could the Dark Knight do in maintaining the peace in Gotham despite him being just somewhat fit to do that as an elderly man (which says A LOT given how old he is)

uhh he'll probably do what my grandpa does and that is ruthlessly prank them until they die of shame.

in the death in the family interactive movie there's an ending where Jason is tasked with raising Damian and he decides he's gonna raise Damian to take down the waynes and al ghuls which uh maybe isn't great BUT the idea of Jason raising Damian... PRICELESS. CHAOTIC. I just need more people to know about this :)

yes i saw that wow holy shit but jason would accidentally drop damian on his head one (1) hour in and jason just yeets him into the lazarus pit.

Headcanon: The Penguin has a really hard time fighting any of the Robins because of his avian obsession means there's always a small part of his mind that's like "Birb. Child. Protect" ( @subspacecadet )

as soon as dick becomes nightwing the penguin is like 'you know what, fuck this dude' and shoots at him.

Y'all talking about King Shark dating Constantine, let's not forget about John literally hooking up with Satan

listen there's a clear difference between monsterfucker and satanfucker in that king shark is literally a shark and satan still looks like a normal dude

Does everyone in Gotham think Batman is a teen dad?

everyone in gotham thinks batman has been around since gotham was founded, but they do think that bruce wayne is actually a teen father and dick grayson's biological dad.

why. why would you do that fancast when you know it will only hurt people

what? i loved my fancast it was really well done. i did it with good representation in mind and i really managed that with alfred pennyworth being ✨italian✨

Seeing james charles a jason gave me psychic damage how dare you i need to wash my eyes

well that's a you problem isn't it?

do you think dick grayson thirst tweets about nightwing just to annoy his family/cause problems on purpose in general?

he thinks nightwing is hot, next question.

holy jiminy cricket batman, its as cold as the good lords ass crack in here!!

i- what? this is why i don't fuck with english expressions it's way too goddamn weird

Brooooooo, your teen dad!Bruce au is soooo good. I've got brainrot.

Honestly if you ever write anymore, I'd read that shit twice. Sign me the fuck up. Good stuff, Good Stuff.

uh yeah i'm thinking about writing a fic, but i have exams coming up and i don't wanna fail because that would suck. but after i'll certainly be writing more tho

your teen dad AU is so great! bruce acting like a big brother for all of like a week before he's telling everyone about his son. what if in the AU dick meets the JL because they need to rescue him? maybe he's in trouble/kidnapped at a gala and bruce starts calling for JL. clark finds him and has to fly with dick to bring him home - that's how dick and clark meet and superman becomes dick's fave hero. he goes around the manor thinking he can fly with a red blanket draped around him like a cape.

actually- if you want a young dad! bruce fic with like that kinda stuff(just with damian) go check uhh- in for a penny by cdelphiki. it's really good and bruce is like 24/25-ish. (and dick's there!!!)

This account has solely convinced me that Tim is a trash goblin ( @hamilcat-and-magic-turtle )

because he is. that boy has slept in dumpsters on multiple occasions even if he is the son of a billionaire.

Okay but when you said victory dance I did think of the whole justice league defeating the big bad and then they all start flossing

well that's exactly what hal jordan does and that's why batman uses a gun now. no but the victory dance in my opinion is like the 'we're all in this together' dance from high school musical.

The horrors in Invincible s1 was nothing compared to the comics, I cant wait for s2

oh well okay, i mean i personally react to horror and violence by laughing awkwardly so i can't wait to be called a monster for accidentally laughing at a mass murder.

I'm currently watching Batman: The Brave and The Bold and- Bruce is just talking about Oliver like he's an old love (@nightwings-kid)

okay im going to watch that lmao that's totally and completely in character for him tho.

The invincible comic is like super gratuitous with its violence so much so I'm shocked the show was able to adapt it in a faithful way! Anyway had the show been live action it absolutely wouldn't have the same impact as it does as an animated show and I'm so glad so many people agree with me on that

also because a live action casting would've been like uhh amanda stenberg for amber, the dude- the guy from the supernatural but with a mustache for omni-man, and scarlet johanssen for debbie grayson

Debbie grayson is a milf, yes. You're welcome for the invincible propoganda, now you can questions your life. Bruce def seems like the perfect father next to Omni-man. Like they really took a rip off justice league and I was like well, now I'm attached even tho I was like hah I know who they're supposed to be. And then bam- death gore death gore gore gore sad Mark grayson just had to have daddy issues. Why does every character have daddy issues. I'm sick of the attacks

because daddy issues make a person arguably funnier, that's why i'm not even remotely funny (haha good dad flex). i liked that it was dark contextually, but not in the colouring, bc i hate when it's like 'uh yeah graphic murder and now a shot so dark you have to sit in a dark room and squint at the screen to faintly see the characters. (like dcau ugh)

About the Wayne insurance, for a moment I thought you would put the video with moans over the waves.

i mean- i could've done that, but rick rolling seemed more family friendly.

Its the first time in forever that im surpise rickrolled, i usually expect it. Congratulations (i really should know better this is tumblr)

i get rickrolled so often but i actually like the song so i dont really give a fuck

Actually, my information about Damian and John's kids is outdated because it was revealed that the old men telling the kids stories about the Supersons were actually Jon and Damian the whole time. I was blinded by my thirst for Grandpa!Bruce Wayne but I was wrong... I liked my version better, tbh (@artemisa97)

fair enough. but i'd honestly like to see damian and jon getting together, just because it's a really fun dynamic and their friendship was really cute when they were kids. (also idk maybe it would be nice to have one (1) main batfam/superfam character that's not cishet)

How am i JUST finding your blog skdskfkd you're so fucking funny and ur takes are hot

i thought u were calling me hot :( but youre not :( crime detected (but lmao thanks)

So I have depression and I swear that your memes are one of the few things that have made me laugh so thank you 💛🥺 (@katekanebadass)

aw you're welcome, and i hope you're doing okay!

The metropolis memes are so funny, I love them 💀😌

i think metropolis is also so fucking funny it deserves more attention imagine having your entire police force being upstaged by an alien from kansas and his kids

as an american i feel your complete lack of knowledge of us geography is just so sexy (platonic) ❤️

thanks so much (i also don't know any other geography, i'm not kidding, like you can tell me you're from hungary and it will just blank, there will be nothing that comes to mind)

In the DC universe they don't say "Can't have shit in Detroit" they say "Can't have shit in Gotham"

this just reminds me of that guy whose porch got stolen like the steps to his door, and i'm thinking of people living in gotham and waking up without a front door and going "can't have shit in gotham"

honestly all i know about chicago is the bean, so. what would gotham's famous sculpture be?

gigantic gargoyle statue in front of one of the police precincts because a villain thought it was a smart way to keep the police inside, but it's too heavy to move.

why tf do people go on about how batman "works alone" or how he's the "lone wolf" when he like 38290202 members in his family

bc people think it's cool that a grown man in his 30s has no friends or family instead of calling it what it is (sad)

Bruce is gotham's sugar daddy

why would say something so controversial yet so brave.

my favorite batfamily fanfictions are the ones where they use their shitty codenames, unironically, in any context

dick: gerard way are you in position, gerard way are you in position

tim: for the last fucking time, my codename is 'totally not count olaf' this week, abbafan 3000

dick: shut up my codename isn't 'abbafan 3000'

dick: it's 'abbafan number 1' and you know it

I have a feeling Tim drake is ur favourite batfamily member but okay u don't have favs if u say so ok

i mean he is, i won't deny it. but i love each and every one of the batfam just the same, i just have a weak spot for short dumbass nerds, because i'm a short dumbass nerd.

Omg i fuckin love boy meets world too fam shsjkfk

bro boy meets world was the shit!!! it was just fire and awesome and so fucking great like bro. it was so good im not even going to be accepting criticism

you know I find the whole "joker completes batman" thing a bit disgusting considering the horrendous stuff the batfamily went through because of the joker and let's not get started on the "joker has a point" thing like yeah he's this cool complex villain but he's absolutely batshit crazy

like yes! i get what you mean the joker just fucking sucks man he doesn't do shit for batman's character or the batfam he's literally just annoying as fuck. like the joker has a point' shit is so stupid. i will accept 'magneto was right' because he fucking was and i think he didn't do anything wrong, but joker? he's just like that. he's not even cool and complex he's just a weirdo with a bleach kink at this point.

ALSO YOUR RACISM POST- SO TRUE BESTIE

thanks bestie, i'm glad you agree.

in today's essay of why I think cass should become batman- I was thinking Tim would probably be the most efficient batman in many ways but I also think he wouldn't want to be batman tbh none of the batfamily members would want to be batman because they're trying to outgrow him but cass is the one who wants to represent the symbol that is batman

absofuckinglutely i will say it again and again that cass represents the batsymbol more than anyone in the batfam, in batgirl (2000) she literally didn't care about anything else than bruce's oath to not kill, she thought the batsymbol was more important than anything in gotham. she's just an excellent character because her motivation to not kill is not 'i'm scared i can't come back from it' or 'well my dad says no murder so i'll go along with it' but that she's killed somebody as a young child and she never wants to kill a human ever again and that's so fucking beautiful for a new batman like yes.

need more cass, duke and tim inclusion in gothamite memes

yes yes, a tall order of cass, duke and tim coming up in 1-14 business days

oldest to youngest batfam members cus I'm confused as shit

okay order of being taken in: dick, jason, tim, cass, damian, duke order of age: alfred, bruce, dick, cass, jason, tim, duke, damian (though cass and jason are around the same age general consensus is that cass is a little older)

I'm so confused Steph is a redhead?? like how was it that hard to get this right? the source material is literally right there and free

cw is jared, 19

do you receive anon hate? if so, how do you deal with it

uh no, i'm not remotely popular enough to get anon hate and i also don't say a lot of things that would attract anon hate, but i do send anon hate to @the-real-peter-parker because he forgot about the specialists from winx club

Wait how many languages do you speak??

uhh- 5 if you include latin, but that's a dead language and i'm really bad at it. but english, my native language, german, and french also, tho german and french not fluently.

You can mix aguaepanela with aguardiente 😈 and is tasty

okay but now i'm curious if the liquor deserves the 😈 emoji or if that's a you problem. but i googled it and it looks like something you'd take one sip of and then not remember the rest of your evening.

#i love all of you guys so much thanks for all these asks #some of these are literally from march but fuck it #the day tumblr puts dates next to anon messages is the day i close my inbox crawl into a hole and die #it's such a basic task to answer asks but i don't want to bother anyone with asks clogging up their timeline #and if i don't have a funny or good answer i'm like 'uhh okay won't answer it now then'#so this is for you #also i deleted a few asks because it gives me mental pain to see my inbox go over 50 and it's almost at 100 #i was complaining about having too many asks to the-real-peter-parker like months ago and then i had 45 asks in my inbox #now it's amassed to going over 100 twice #but no i love all of you and you're great and you're all fantastic and i lvoe you #muchos kiss kiss #kiss kiss for my kiddies lvoe you #invincible spoilers #dc #dcu #dc comics #ask #anon #bataranswers #i really wanna try aguapanela now i'm gonna see if i can find panela somewhere and review it for you babes #uh yeah that's it #muchos gracias for all your questions babes

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