"My past left scars and wounds. But the biggest one I have is the one I got falling for you."

    Indigo's POV

    My body laid across four of the plastic chairs that sat in the waiting room of the Auto Shop. Stiles left a couple of seconds ago because fixing the jeep was taking longer than it should've. I just stared up at the ceiling, the white tiles and florescent lights, still thinking.

   "Quality establishment you're running here!" I heard Stiles yell, before the door was yanked open. A bell rung and I looked over, seeing an annoyed Stiles wipe his hand on his jacket. He shook his head and looked around, his eyes catching a photo frame. The guy who was working on his car, in a lacrosse uniform.

     "Figures." Stiles scoffed. I chuckled and looked back at the ceiling. Stiles pulled out his phone, but I didn't hear him typing.

     "What the-" He whispered, before his phone dropped. My eyebrows furrowed and I sat up normally, looking at him. Stiles had his hands out, shaking, looking down at them.

   "Are you okay?" I asked, standing up and walking over. He looked to me.

"I don't- I don't know." He shook his head.

     We both looked out to the mechanic, who was still drilling away. A clawed hand reached down, dripping with liquid.

"Hey. Hey!" Stiles yelled. But the claws scratched his neck and the mechanic grabbed the wound, wincing. The creature crawled around the jeep, disappearing.

   I heard someone fall and I looked to see Stiles on the ground, arms and legs stiff.

   "Stiles!" I yelled, crouching down. I tried to pull him up but his body was too stiff. I grunted, trying again, but nothing.

     "Help! Help me!"

I stood and looked out to see the jeep was moving down, the mechanic on the floor, like Stiles was. My eyes widened and I ran to the door.

  "Indigo, no!" Stiles shouted. I looked to him crazily.

"If I don't go, he's going to die, Stiles!" I yelled.

    "If you go, you're going to die! And I'm not letting that happen when I can't do anything about it!" He snapped.

"I'm not letting him die." I narrowed my eyes at him, as my hand turned the door knob, swinging the door open. Stiles' yelling continued as I ran into the garage, the jeep lowering closer and closer to the ground.

    I ran next to the guy, getting him to look at me, his eyes full of fear.

"Don't worry. I'm going to help you." I nodded. He let out a small sigh, nodding frantically.

   I stood up and looked around for whatever was making the jeep drop. A hissing noise made me turn around, but it wasn't the creature. It was a pipe. A loose pipe, slashed as it let out air. That. But there was nothing I could do about that.

I quickly looked back at the guy, worried. But the creature came out from behind the jeep, yellow eyes, scales for skin, a tail that whipped around. It titled it's head at me, crawling closer.

   "Indigo!" I heard Stiles scream again. The guy under the jeep was yelling for help, and the creature crawled closer. Quicker this time, it jumped toward me, making me lose balance and land on the floor. I backed up, before my back hit the wall.

   It crawled closer, it's claws ticking against the concrete floor. A whimper escaped me as it's face inched closer to mine, it's quiet hisses now audible.

  "Hey, lizard!"

Both of our heads looked over, seeing Stiles hitting his immobile arm on the floor, catching the creatures attention.

   "Over here!" He yelled.

The creature was distracted, looking at Stiles, so I swung my arm, smashing my fist to the slid of its skull. A loud screech came from the creature as it wobbled over, but it spun around just as quick, dragging it's claws right over my arm. I screamed at the feeling. It hurt so much. I looked to see, seeing blood was already oozing out.

   "Indigo! No!" Stiles yelled angrily. His phone lit up from the dial screen.

    "911, what's you emergency?"

˛

I sat in the back of the ambulance for the second time. Stiles was next to me, his dad leaning against the doors.

   "I told you." Stiles huffed. "We just walked in and saw the jeep on top of the guy, that's all."

  Sheriff nodded, before his eyes caught something, cinching his eyebrows. "What's wrong with your hand?"

We all looked to see it was still shaking. Probably from whatever that lizard thing had. Both of my hands grabbed his, easing them. Stiles' hand held mine as he shook his head.

   "Nothing. Can we just get out of here now?"

"Look, if there's something you don't think you can tell me-" His dad started, but Stiles quickly cut him off.

     "You think I'm lying?"

"No, of course not." Sheriff shook his head. "I'm just worried about you. The both of you. Now if you saw something do this- if you're afraid that maybe they'll come back and make sure you don't say anything it-"

     "We didn't see anything. At all." Stiles confirmed again. "Now can we go home? Please?"

  Sheriff sighed, but gave in. "Sure. But- not in your jeep."

Stiles looked up to him, eyes wide, but his dad shrugged.

     "Gonna have to impound it. Sorry, kid. Evidence. See you at home."

Stiles huffed as his dad began to walk away. "At least make sure they wash it?"

   I chuckled and looked down to my lap, seeing the bandage on my arm peek out from under my shirt sleeve.

 "We need to talk." I heard Stiles say, his hands giving mine a small squeeze.

"About what, Stiles." I sighed.

     "About how you thought running towards the giant lizard was a great idea." He reminded me. I groaned.

"What, so I was supposed to let that guy die? Just- watch him get crushed by the car?"

    "You were supposed to stay safe." Stiles gave me a serious look. "Indigo, you could've died. While- while I was laying on the floor, helpless?"

"Well, it doesn't matter anymore, does it. He's dead anyways." I scoffed.

    "What matters is that you still walk around like nobody cares. Like, nobody will care if you're suddenly gone. Indigo, I do! I care. I'll care if you're gone. I'll care when I wake up and suddenly, I can't see you that day. I'll care when I go to Scott's house and there's an empty bedroom because you're not using because you're gone. And- and I can't handle any of that. Okay? You mean something to me. Whether or not you believe it, you have people who want you here, Indigo. So please- stop doing things that might kill you."

   And that was it. That was all I needed to hear. Ever since I got here, I was a sore thumb. The girl who just appeared and suddenly people wanted to help. Because they felt bad. I was lost, with nothing of who I was. And now, I had family. Friends. People who cared. And this entire time I was self-loathing about how strange and out of place I was, I was actually part of this place. I had Melissa, Scott, Allison, even Lydia, Sheriff and. . .

        Stiles. I had Stiles and he wasn't going anywhere.

  "Okay." I nodded, letting out a deep breath. "I'll- I'll stop."

"Good." Stiles smiled, chuckling nervously.

    "Thank you, Stiles." I smiled back.

"For what?" He tilted his head.

    "Caring." I blushed, shrugging.

 He laughed, shaking his head softly. "Honestly, I don't think I had a choice in it. Caring about you, Indigo, was inevitable."

   A honk interrupted us and we both turned, seeing Scott in Melissa's car. We both stood up and jogged over, me hopping in the back seat as Stiles got into the passenger.

  "You two okay?" He asked, looking at both of us.

"You were right." Stiles breathed out. "It's not like you. It's eyes were almost- reptilian. There was something about them."

   "What are you talking about?" Scott asked, confused.

   "You know, like, when you see a friend in a Halloween mask, and you feel like you know who it is but you can't figure who it is?"

"You're saying you know who it is?" Scott raised his eyebrows, but Stiles just shook his head.

    "No." He sighed. "But I think it knew us."

˛

  School the next day wasn't fun. Everyone had heard what had happened but not that Stiles and I had seen it. The last few minutes of the day, we had been running messages from Scott to Allison. Over and over and over.

Stiles sat next to Scott, preparing Allison's message, which, I was preparing to laugh.

   "I'm trying. We'll get through this." Stiles nodded awkwardly to a smiling Scott. "Um, I know this- because I love you. I love you more than- oh my god! You and Allison have to find a better way to communicate."

   "Come on!" Scott whined. "You're the only two we can trust. Is she coming to the game tonight?"

"Yes. Message complete." Stiles huffed. "Now, tell me about your boss."

     "He thinks that Allison's family keeps some kind of record of all the things they've hunted."

"Oh, so like a bestiary?" Stiles nodded. Scott laughed, shaking his head.

   "I think you mean bestiality." He nodded.

 "Nope, pretty sure I don't." Stiles shook his head. "It's like an encyclopedia of mythical creatures."

Scott's mouth dropped.

  "How am I the only one who doesn't know these types of things?"

"You're a friend of mine and creature of the night. You're kind of a priority." Stiles nodded. "If we can find it, and it can tell us who the creature is, all we need is-"

       "The book." They said in unison. I chuckled.

"You two are adorable." I teased. Stiles huffed and grabbed my hand, dragging me to talk to Allison for probably the seventh time today.

˛

Allison giggled. "I think you mean-"

    "No. I mean bestiary. The two of you-" Stiles shook his head. "I don't want to know what's going on in your head."

"Okay, um-" Allison thought. "Can you describe the thing?"

     "It's probably like a book. Old, worn-"

"Like- bound in leather?" She asked. Stiles nodded frantically.

    "I've seen my grandfather with a book like that." Allison nodded. Stiles groaned and grabbed my hand again, dragging me to Scott.

˛

   Stiles slammed into the lockers next to Scott, breathing heavily from the running, worse than I was.

"She- she says she's seen it. Her- grandfather." He heaved out. Scott's eyes widened.

   "Where? Where does he keep it?"

"She says it has to be in his office." I huffed out.

  "Can we get it?"

       And off we ran again.

˛

   "You know," Stiles coughed, taking a breath from an inhaler. "Drug dealers have been using disposable cell phones successfully for years."

"My parents check every text, every call, every email. Trust me, they'd find it." She warned him. Stiles sighed.

    "Can we get the book?" I breathed out. She sighed.

"Not without his keys."

˛

    Sitting on the cold bleachers that night for the lacrosse game wasn't fun, but if our plan worked, this was going to be worth it. I was sat next to Stiles as the game started, him not even dressed in game uniform. Which, made me feel really bad that he didn't even bother wearing the uniform just in case. He just knew.

    "Oh, come on! Is that thing even a teenager?" Coach shouted as another of our players was smashed to the ground by #42. He huffed and sat on the other side of Stiles. "I wanna see a birth certificate!"

He looked to Stiles, shaking his head. "Who or what is that genetic experiment gone wrong?"

    "Eddie Abomawoods, Coach." Stiles sighed, his breath visible. "They call him 'The Abomination'."

"Oh, that's cute." Coach grumbled.

    I huffed and rubbed my arms again, leaning into Stiles' shoulder. He brought his arm around, laying across my shoulders. His hand rubbed my arm as well, trying to generate any body heat possible. Although, I could feel enough just from him.

  "Come on, Allison has the keys." He quietly whispered, standing up. I stood up along with him, following him away from the crowd. I spotted Allison on the edge of the bleacher, dangling keys discretely from her hip so that Gerard couldn't see. Stiles slid past and grabbed them, trying to plaster an innocent look on his face.

   "Come on, dork." I scoffed, grabbing his arm. He stammered, but jogged with me as we ran towards the school. We needed to get into that office for the book-

"Hey, Indigo." Stiles nudged me. He stopped running, so I stopped, my eyebrows furrowed.

    "Stiles, come on-" He stopped my talking as he gestured to a car.

Lydia's car.

With Lydia in it.

Crying.

    Honestly, I felt bad she was crying for whatever reason. And, honestly, right now was the worst timing because the longer we don't have that book, the more people that might die.

Stiles walked over to the car, me following. I saw her window was open, so you could hear her crying.

   "Hey, Lydia?" Stiles called. "Lydia, what's wrong?"

She scoffed and rolled up the window, wiping away tears.

   "Okay, I think that means go away." I nodded, pulling at Stiles' arm. He sighed and knocked on her window.

"Lydia, come on."

"Just, go away." She cried.

"What's wrong?" Stiles argued back.

    "Look, I don't need anyone seeing me cry!" She sobbed, wiping more tears.

"Aw, Lydia." Stiles sighed. "You shouldn't care if people see you cry, alright? Especially you."

    "Why?" Her eyebrows furrowed. Stiles froze and looked to me, expecting me to have an answer. I internally groaned.

    "Because- you're even beautiful when you cry, Lydia. Alright? Just like always." I sighed. That was slightly true. She was beautiful, she was just too sure that she was.

Lydia took a deep breath, looking to her lap. Finally, her window rolled down and Stiles gave me a surprised look.

   "You guys will think I'm crazy." She sighed. Stiles scoffed.

"Lydia, I promise you, there's literally nothing you could say to us that would sound crazy. Literally nothing."

   The screams could be heard from out here, cheering for our lacrosse team. Stiles' eyes went wide.

"Uh, sorry, could you give us like- five minutes?" I asked awkwardly. She was extremely offended.

   "I'm, we're sorry It's just-" Stiles sighed. "Five minutes. You could sit here and- keep crying. Or! Or, don't keep crying. Whatever works for you, and I promise we'll be right back to talk."

   Lydia shook her head and waved us off. I huffed and grabbed Stiles' hand, pulling him towards the school.

˛

    Stiles and I were shoveling through his office, looking for anything that looked like what Ally described. Nothing. Nada.

 "Find anything?" I sighed, shutting the door. Stiles shook his head, plopping down in the chair behind the desk. He ripped his phone from his pocket, texting.

"Nothing. . . here." He whispered as he typed, before sending it. He put it back in his pocket and looked up, jumping in place as his eyes widened. I looked and saw Erica.

    "Hello Stiles." She smirked, hand on her hip. I stomped towards her, drawing my fist back again, but she quickly did the same, knocking my face. I groaned as I stumbled to the door, a pulsing pain racking at my head. I hissed and held my cheek, glaring to her.

   "Been practicing. I think I'm getting the hand of these." She tilted her head, before letting her claws out.

Stiles jogged over to me, but Erica snatched his upper arm, making him wince. I threw myself off the door, but the pounding in my head made me stumble.

    "Both of you. Come on." She snapped, grabbing my arm too. She dragged us out of the office and down the hallway, before walking into a large room. The swimming pools.

 Derek stood there, basketball in hand, smiling at us.

    "Oh, hey Derek." Stiles sighed. Erica dropped us both, before going to stand next to Derek. I grunted, but Stiles stuck his arm out for me. I shook my head and stood there, trying to forget about the pain. It was going away, though.

"What'd you two see at the mechanics garage?" Derek looked to us.

    "Uh, several alarming EPA violations that I'm seriously considering reporting?" Stiles nodded. Derek let out one chuckle, before he gripped the basketball and it started deflating instantly.

"Holy god. . . " Stiles coughed out. Derek smirked, still holding it.

    "Let's try that again."

They stood as they waited for answer, not budging. Stiles sighed, giving in.

   "Alright, the thing was pretty slick looking. Um, the skin was dark? Some kind of- pattern. I think I actually saw scales." He nodded. "Is that enough?"

Derek stood and waited again, waiting for more. Stiles groaned, kicking the ground.

   "Um, all right, fine. Eyes. Uh, eyes are- yellowish. And slitted. Um, has a lot of teeth? Oh! And it's got a tail."

Derek and Erica both froze, eyes raising up to the ceiling. Stiles looked to me confused.

  "Are we good?" I asked.

Erica looked completely engulfed in fear, her chest rising and falling more than normal.

  "What? Have you seen it?" Stiles wondered. "You have that look on your face where you know exactly what I'm talking about."

I followed their eyes up, seeing a gated area, and the creature. My eyes went wide as I nudge Stiles, keeping my eyes on it. He turned around and I heard him take a deep breath.

   Stiles stumbled back where Derek was, me following. It let out a screeching hiss, before jumping down to the floor. Derek crouched down and roared, his claws and fangs growing. With one quick swipe, Erica was thrown to the wall.

Derek looked to us, shoving me away. "Run!"

   Stiles was about to pull me with him, but while Derek was turned around, it sliced the back of his neck.

"Derek, your neck." Stiles warned him. Derek had a confused look as he felt for it. His body began falling over, before Stiles dove under his shoulder, catching him. I went for the other one, putting his arm around me. We wobbled, carrying Derek between us.

   "Do you see him?" Stiles yelled to Derek.

"No, keep going." Derek huffed, his feet dragging the floor.

    "Call Scott." Derek yelled. Stiles nodded and tried pulling his phone out, but it dropped. He went for it, but Derek fell over and into the water, right out of my grip.

Stiles' eyes widened as he looked from his phone to a sinking Derek- and dove into the pool.

  "Stiles!" I yelled, but he was already under water. I grunted and grabbed his phone. I turned it on and called Scott, hearing the rings.

And just ringing.

No answer. I dropped the phone back down and stood up, just as Stiles emerged with Derek, trying to keep them both above water.

   "Did you call?" He breathed out. I nodded.

"He didn't answer." I shook my head. Stiles scoffed, still struggling.

  "Where did it go?" He yelled out. I froze and looked around, not seeing it. Nowhere near this pool.

"I- I don't know. I can't see it." I shrugged.

  "Indigo!" Stiles yelled and as soon as he did, the creature fell in front of me, right onto its feet. I stumbled back, it's eyes staring directly into mine.

A low hiss came from it, as it tip-toed towards me. I inched back, not wanting to make any sudden movements.

   "Indigo, get in the water. Please, just get in the water." Stiles tried to slowly say as he swam. I thought about it.

"Stiles?"

"What?"

"I can't swim." I shook my head. "I- I never learned. I don't remember."

     "Just- just come on. I'll keep you up."

 "Stiles, there is no way you can hold up me and Derek." I scoffed, glancing to him. The creature made a large step, making me jump.

"Well, I'm not letting you die!" Stiles screamed.

  The thing loudly hissed this time, before jumping and smashing me to the ground. I groaned, and it leaned over me, it's face mere inches from mine. It crawled off, but grabbed my arm. I felt it's wet scales against my skin, making me cringe and clench my jaw. It dragged me and I felt the edge of the pool as it began to push me in.

"No, no!" I yelled, shoving against it. It growled and gave one big shove- and I was drenched.

   I was underwater and floating down. I knew I was holding my breath, my eyes open. I could see Stiles holding Derek up, but turned towards me. They were floating down too. Stiles eyes were closed and he wasn't moving.

  My heart wrenched as Stiles fell to the bottom. No, no, no, no.

   A scream erupted from me. It sounded muffled and gargled because of the water. The water rumbled around me and I kept screaming. My ears began ringing and my vision went cloudy and dark.

Until I saw nothing.

˛

"Indigo! Indigo!"

    Hands hit my chest over and over, lips on mine, blowing air to me. Then hands again, then lips. Their lips left mine and I shot up, coughing water. My eyes screwed shut as I coughed, my throat aching.

  "Oh, thank god." A voice breathed out. I wiped my mouth and my eyes of water, opening them to see Stiles sat on the floor next to me, relief on his face.

His wet arms pulled me in, wrapping them around me, holding me gently. I felt his trembling lips place themselves against my forehead for a couple seconds before simply laying his chin atop my head.

   "What happened?" I looked around, seeing Scott was standing next to a mobile Derek, all looking to me.

"Scott pulled us out," Stiles' voice spoke. I looked back up to him, his face so close. "And when he pulled you out-"

    He stopped talking and looked down to his lap, a frustrated look on his face. Stiles' hand shook as he messed with the bottom of my shirt. What ever happened to me, really scared Stiles. I dropped one of my hands to his, stopping the shaking. His gaze returned to me and he gave a short smile. I heard Derek sigh in annoyance.

   "When he pulled you out, you weren't breathing."

˛

We'd gone to Scott's car in the parking lot because Scott had gotten the book. Well, the USB the book was on. He plugged it into the side of his laptop and it popped up. The book. Just- not in English.

    "Is that even a language?" Stiles scoffed as we looked at it.

"How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?" Scott huffed, flipping through the pages.

   "It's called a kanima." Derek walked up, with Erica. Stiles' eyes widened.

"You knew the whole time." He nodded, crossing his arms. Derek shook his head.

   "Only when it was scared of it's own reflection."

"It doesn't know what it is." Scott mused.

  "Or who." Derek sighed.

"Well," Stiles scoffed. "What else do you know?"

   "Just stories." He shrugged. "Rumors."

"But- it's like us?" Scott asked.

   "A shapeshifter, yes." Derek nodded. "But it's- it's not right. It's like a. . ."

 "An abomination?" Stiles tried to add. Derek nodded slowly, before turning around and walking.

"Derek!" Scott called. "We need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents?"

  "You trust them." Derek snapped.

"Nobody, trusts anyone!" Scott yelled. "That's the problem! While we're here arguing about who's on what side, there's something scarier, stronger, and faster than any of us and it's killing people! And we still don't even know anything about it!"

"I know one thing." Derek snapped. "When I find it?"

  "I'm gonna kill it."

˛

   Scott and I had to go pick up Melissa, so Stiles reluctantly let me go with. We pulled up into the deck and Scott turned off the car, hopping out. I did the same, until I heard Scott hiss in pain.

I looked over to see Gerard holding his shoulder, Scott's face in obvious pain. What?

  Then I smelled the blood.

  I ran around the car and saw Gerard with a dagger in Scott's torso.

"I can practically feel the tissue healing around it." Gerard smiled proudly. I stepped closer and his eyes flickered to me daringly.

   "And be careful. We could miss this picture perfect moment of the old grandfather embracing his favorite grandson after hearing good news from the doctor." He spoke slowly.

  "That's right." He nodded. "I can play the nice daughter-ing grandpa that likes to cook, and tell stories and be sweet and charming." He ruffled Scott's hair.

 "It's the last two I'm not so sure." I snapped. He glared to me, but returned his gaze to Scott.

   "Trust me," He sighed. "I can do this far better than you playing the average broken-hearted teenage boy." He wiggled the blade deeper.

  "Are you listening?" He asked a pained Scott. Scott glared up at him.

"Yes." He grumbled.

 "Perfect." Gerard whispered. "Now, you're gonna do me a favor one of these days and you're gonna do it because if you don't? This knife goes in her."

He looked into the hospital, making both me and Scott. The first person we saw him looking to.

   Melissa.

 "Like hell you won't." I glared at him, standing closer

"Scott," Gerard sighed. "I truly believe it's so much easier when bad things don't have to happen to good people."

   Gerard shoved the knife more, making me clench my jaw. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes." Scott snapped loudly. Gerard smiled and ripped out the knife, walking away.

  I walked to Scott. "You okay?" I quietly asked him. He nodded stiffly, turning to see Mom at the car.

"Hey." She smiled. Scott's heavy breathing made her eyebrows cinch. "You okay?"

    "Yeah, fine." Scott shrugged. Melissa smiled and nodded, getting in the passenger seat.

"Everything's perfectly fine."

A/N:: im sorry, i can't help but keep writing lmao. i love stindigo so much it's a problem. like, UGH im trying to hurry to the epiSODE WHERE I PUT THEM TOGETHER WHO'S READY FOR THAT. it's all planned out- there's just filler episodes in the WAy. ugh. anyways, comment if you liked it, vote on it because the better the feedback the quicker the update I LOVE YOU GUYS SOMUCH