AFTER WHAT HAPPENED THAT DAY, the three friends planned to spend the night scouting the internet for any information as to how the criminals had managed to get into Beacon Hills First National Bank. Despite their best efforts, none of them managed to stay awake for long. Scott was the first to fall asleep, claiming that if he closed his eyes for a few minutes, he would be able to work better.

Next came Stiles, who's previous sleep deprived nights finally caught up to him. All this only seemed to make Valentina even more determined to figure out what really happened, but that only worked for so long. Two hours after later, she collapsed onto the bed and met with sleep within a matter of seconds.

"Guys?" The sheriff tapped at the doorframe to the bedroom. Opening it, he smiled at the familiar the sight of his son's best friend, although let his eyes linger slightly on the small girl beside him. "Hey, time to wake up. Guys. Guys!" Eventually the final shout managed to wake the two boys up, yet, Valentina, however, remained lying face down onto one of the pillows. Stiles, who was taken back by his father's sudden shouting, fell off his bed and hit the ground with a loud thump.

"Who's this?" His father asked, nodding his head towards the girl who was snoring lightly into the pillow. Scott, who hadn't even considered the possibility of the sheriff seeing Valentina, quickly told him that she was a girl from school. Staring at his son, more surprised than distrustful, he silently wondered if her presence was going to become a common occurrence. "Okay, I've got to get to work. You three get to school."

With a swift shake of his head, his father left the three teenagers to their problems. "Tina. Tina, wake up." Scott shook the girl lightly to wake her up, yet all he managed to get was for her to turn onto her back and a grunt.

"Ten hours and nothing about how they got in." He said in a pessimistic tone, picking up a few of the papers that lay on the ground. Lacking any emotion, Valentina lifted her torso to look at the state of the room, and it would be a compliment to call it a mess. After clearing the papers so that she could stand up, Stiles responded to his best friend's optimism, "Finding something doesn't make Erica any less dead or Boyd any less about-to-be dead."

"I hate you both so much." Her comment didn't have any relevance to the conversation, and she assumed that it was ignored for that very reason.

"We still have time, Stiles."

No matter how hard Scott tried to perk up the conversation with his hope, the Stilinski boy only seemed to come back harder with more negative retorts. "Is this whole 'remain optimistic in the face of complete and utter disaster' thing a part of the 'be a better Scott McCall' program?" Despite being angry at the both of them, she couldn't deny how creative that insult was and how much she admired it, but it was too early. Way too early.

As Valentina stood up from the bed, the tension in the room became even more noticeable, especially her standing up. Scott remained in the chair that she had remembered seeing him in so many hours ago, inside with a new look of surprise on his face. "Not if it doesn't work." At the end he looked back up to them, more towards the Hale girl, searching for any sign of emotion.

"No, it works." Stiles sighed, and glanced down to the paper that lay his hands before dropping them all, besides one. "Oh, dad! Dad? Dad!"  Pushing the sheet in Scott, he left continuing to shout for his father. She joined him looking at the article, and noticed how the sheriff happened to be one of the arresting officers, but she hadn't actually met him before.

The night before, she managed to catch a glance of him when he was giving the takeaway food to his son, the now lay on the floor, but that was all. A small bing from her phone ripped her away from reading the article, and making the McCall boy stare at her for a few seconds before returning to the newspaper. 

UNKNOWN CONTACT
You weren't there last night.

VALENTINA
I'll see you tonight instead

UNKNOWN CONTACT
Don't.

UNKNOWN CONTACT
Stay put tonight

VALENTINA
You know fully well I'm not
going to do that

UNKNOWN CONTACT
I know exactly what you're
going to do. You're going to
say put. Like you were told.

⋆。 ̊ ⋆ ࿐

The strong breeze carried the thick smoke that ran directly past a small girl, who's eyes began to tear up. Dropping the basket ball that she was carrying, her jaw dropped at the flames dancing around in the sky with the blood-curdling screams of her relatives, causing the her run towards it.

She had been left utterly speechless. All she was able to think about was the make hole that was being dug into her heart. Only seconds prior had the eight year-old girl had been trying to get a ball in a hoop, and that was her biggest problem. Yet something made her stop. Whether it was the heat or the sounds, it gave her older sister enough time to reach out her arm from the burning building.

It seemed like her heart began to beat again, almost a glimmer of hope, until she pulled her out of the house. Burns covered every inch of her skin, bringing with it a great pain to everything she touched. Her favourite sweater in ruins, blood splatters covering the back of it from a large knife wound. It had been a massacre.

Tears ran down her face as they both gasped loudly for air. The seventeen year-old lay in her younger sister's lap, combing her hair in attempts to calm her so she could tell the brunette her final words. "Hey, hey, hey, Tina. It's okay, it's okay." As the breathing between the two of them had begun to quieten, she knew that definitely wasn't a good sign.

"You need to go. The-the people who did this are still here. Everyone was in there, I was the only one who-who made it out." Her sob became slightly louder at the news of her whole family being dead, but covered her mouth, hoping that would somehow calm herself down."I need you to do something for me." In response she nodded, unable to get any words out or else they would just come out in sobs.

"Run. Don't stop. Remember that we all— we all love so much, and can't wait to see you again when you're all old with little grand-babies." The joke she tried to make didn't trick the young Valentina Hale, all it did was bring her survival instinct into action and watch as the bright light she once saw drifted from her eyes. "I trust you, I love you. Do me proud."

"Josie? Josephine, come on. Come on! Speak to me," Every part of her wanted to scream at the universe, or whatever forced her to face the world all by her own. "Please. Please! No, no, no, no."

That was how her nightmares usually went, and that always happened when she slept ergo her reasoning for why she didn't sleep, unless by accident. That seemed make it extremely hard for Stiles to focus on driving when for the first time ever, the girl that had her head pressed against his car door, looked peaceful.

It was a look that he wished to see on her more, but knew he wouldn't. Hoping to comfort her more, as she was sleeping in an extremely uncomfortable position, he slipped off his flannel. This became harder than he thought, trying to remove it whilst attempting to drive with one hand but he managed and placed it carefully over her small frame.

He realised that he had been given a chance to let her have his flannel, and that put a smile on his face, though quick to be removed by Scott. "Can you focus on driving instead of trying to impress the Hale?" Turning on his indicator and turning left, his best friend leaned forward so that he could see his reactions in a much better angle than the rear-view mirror.

"What are you talking about?"

"I heard you in Econ, 'um, hey. Nice to see you too.' 'what happened?'" His impression of the two tones that he had used in the quotations were juristically different to the other, made him wonder if he did actually sounded like that. The Stilinski boy wasn't bothered to have a conversation like the one he was suggesting, especially with said girl right next to him. "Is something going on there?"

But it was obvious he liked her, so was the fact that she didn't feel the same way towards him. He didn't know why he did, maybe it was the way that she pretended that she didn't care, the pain that she never deserved, or how she was slowing beginning to soften towards them. Or the darkness and the secrets that she was trying to hide, but failing at doing so. Whatever it was, he was falling head over heels for it.

"I don't, I dislike her. I've displayed more than necessary. Besides we've got way more pressing matters than my love life, like what's happening tonight—" Though an clever move to try and change the subject to something more pressing, it didn't stop Scott McCall from trying to get his friend to confess his feelings before it was too late.

"Do you know why little boys pull little girls' pigtails on playgrounds?" His wait for an answer was completely useless, so after a few seconds of waiting he sang, "Because, they like the girls. And that's the only way they know how to get their attention. Meaning that all of these really unnecessary mean things you say to each other is just you trying to hide the fact that you like her, right?"

It was undeniable that Scott knew his best friend better than anybody in the entire world, and for him it was obvious that his feelings for her were only going to end up with him getting hurt. "Stiles." With an awkward silence daring to dawn upon them, Stiles began to understand how right he really was but would die before telling him so.

He followed the six other cars that were driving into the school parking lot, scanning for a possible parking space while waiting. "I want you to answer my question." A small huff fell from his lips before Stiles began reversing into the parking spot that he managed to grab before the person behind them could.

"And I don't."

The shaking of his jeep stopped when the ignition was turned off, which Scott was quick to decide that he wanted to get out of the car before she was woken up. After placing his hand around her arm, he wasn't quite sure of how to wake her up without making her annoyed at him for the rest of the day.

While he was thinking, the human contact had seemed to wake her up but with a sense of anxiety in her eyes. Something he was far too familiar with. "Hey, hey, hey, you're okay." All that seemed to do was affect her more, and that was more than enough communication that she needed from Stiles when she had had barely any sleep.

After they had both climbed out of the jeep, Scott pulled out his phone and said, "Alright, so we meet at Derek's at 5:00 to go over the plan, and then we don't get started until dark." While the two best friends were putting on their backpacks, Valentina held the flannel that had been placed upon her, awkwardly in one hand and her bag in the other.

With the sound of the bell, she made the decision to put Stiles' flannel back on. "Okay. What do we do until then?" The Hale girl asked, drawing the attention away from the school and onto her. All with the exception of Scott, who looked to Stiles, unable to ignore the intensity of which his best friend was staring at her.

this was a nice break from
the 'main' series plot in
the middle of the chapter.
i enjoyed it, and i hope
you did too!

also brooklyn 99 reference <3

honestly too much love in
stalentina ( ? maybe. eh. )
this chapter. next will be
pure insults bc i suck xx

but gals, pals, and my
non-binary babies, did
i give an unnecessary
past to stiles' nickname to
cause val more pain?
yes. yes i did. <33

e n j o y h e r
p a i n a n d s u f f e r i n g

on a serious note, thank you
for reading it means so much
seeing comments and all of
bring a smile to my face. so
comment as much as you
want, feel free to leave a
vote too. k love u guys <3