"LET'S GET YOU CLEANED UP," Stiles offered, though she couldn't quite wrap her head around why he had. At first, she assumed that it was because he couldn't handle how terrible she looked with dried blood on her face, until she finally decided that the smell was most likely making him feel queazy. The McCall boy watched as she followed him out of the morgue, his eyes drifted back down to the body in front of him, before his mind ran back how whipped his best friend was; how easily he was going to get his heart broken.

They gained the strange looks of a few people when they walked down the hallway, staring at how injured the brunette girl seemed, despite the fact that they were in a hospital. Once he had noticed how she was growing more and more uneasy by their stares, he finally chose a room and opened the door for her to walk through. It was like any other room in the hospital, the exact same design, and he hoped that for that exact reason, it would go unnoticed if a two teenagers were in there for ten minutes.

Valentina stood there uncomfortably, watching every step that he made towards the sink in the corner of the room. She could see his hands shaking very slightly which he probably wasn't aware of, but she could see it. A part of her wanted to tell him of it, comfort it about it, saying that he didn't need to be scared of anything, if that was why he was trembling, but she knew that wasn't who she was. No matter how badly she wanted to be like that, it was so wildly out of character for her that she'd end up cursing herself for even trying to sympathise with someone, just like her mother had done when she was younger.

Sometimes, she believes that it was all her mother that led to her extreme unsociability, that after all that woman had put her daughter through, it had left a bigger mark than some of the burns that had managed to scar despite her super-healing. Her right hand subconsciously went to the back of her ear: the scar that the Stilinski boy had pointed out without knowing how much the memories that scar were going to come back to haunt her. For a second, she traced over the part of where the pad of his index finger had been so delicately placed for no longer than five seconds.

There was so much going on that she didn't notice Stiles turning back to look her, still standing with her eyes directed to her grime-covered hands. The rest of her looked so different to what it had been: parts of her hair, once brown like a tree during autumn, growing from the roots to her shoulders in a straight line. Now, like a tree in the winter that was slowly deteriorating before his eyes, and it was easy for him to say that it was sight that he definitely did not enjoy. Her sweat was covering her like a second layer, making some of the hair that was covering her eyes stick to her forehead but to him, she still looked beautiful.

With the entirety of this new ambience that she brought with her to the hospital was like she had lost something tonight. She thought she lost Derek, yet she didn't, so he wasn't quite sure why it looked like she was mourning something. Pain suffocated her, and all he was thinking about was that one painting by Roberto Ferri that stuck out to him in third grade in what he would've considered a commonly boring art lesson. Fallen Angel. It was a piece made in 2011 and it perfectly described exactly what he saw in front of him. How long would it take for her to crumble to the ground like that angel — that lacked as much beauty as her — had? All Stiles knew was that he wanted to next to her when she did.

Walking over to where she stood, he blurts out unexpectedly, "we've got cross country this week." In response the young brunette looks up from her hands as she wondered specifically how that was going to affect her. Slowly he understands that his gaze on her was one that was being held for too long so he motions for her to sit down on the hospital bed, where he joins her. "It's gonna suck ass." A small group of chuckles fall from her chapped lips which brought a sweet smile to his. Carefully, his left hand moved towards her closest arm as if he was asking for permission by giving her the time to tell him to stop if she wanted to clean herself instead.

He lifted her arm up and started to gently wipe off the blood, noticing how she winced uncontrollably when his hand moved up slightly to her elbow. Holding in a visible gulp, Stiles looks up to match her gaze however she did her best to avoid his after what she'd say was an embarrassing moment of weakness. All she could hope was that he wouldn't think back far enough to place together why she wouldn't have unintentionally made such a movement, and thankfully seeing as he was stuck in the intense moment, the furthest he could think back to was when he saw her sitting against the wall outside their high school.

"Does it hurt?" He asked cautiously, feeling the need to remind himself that he hadn't completely gained her trust yet. A part of him gave him the idea that it was going to take a while, and despite his constant preparation, it didn't stop the way that his heart broke little pieces off when she lied or refused answer him. It didn't matter to him that there were packs of Alphas running around and sacrifices (it did), all he wanted was her trust to not... to not hurt her (he did).

She looked over his features while they focused intently on the palm of her hand, which almost persuaded her to answer earnestly, "no." There was no way to describe how he felt in that exact moment but he could suppose that the closest would be contentment. If he was religious he would be thanking any God that he managed to even get that slightest snippet of information directly from her, yet then that was all he got. All he got was a 'no' when he wished that she would just rave about how unfair those Gods, he had just thanked, had been to her.

"If there's a moment where you don't think you can talk to anyone, you can, um, if you want to... talk to me. I won't judge you." Stiles looks up from her now clean arm to catch her gaze the second that he did. For a few seconds, it was pure silence. As if neither of them had spoken a single word. As if they weren't just in a conversation. She started to see things that she never would have wanted to pay attention to before. When did he get small freckles at the bottom of his right iris? Suddenly she averted her eyes to the ground but he nonetheless kept staring at her.

"No, I-I'm good." With those words, they were back to being awkward: gazes left on the ground or working on getting rid of dried blood and tense feeling in the air that wasn't there prior a few seconds ago. "Thank you, though." Her words made him flick his head back up, just in time to catch her clearing her throat, like it would make it easier to breathe in the rigid atmosphere that they had created unnecessarily.

"Yeah," he mumbled, more so to himself than to anyone else. It was one of those moments were he wished he disappear. Though it seemed that his time, he didn't want to disappear from the person, just the hospital and all this... this. He would never want to disappear from her. The idea made him want to disappear himself and completely forget about everything that wasn't her. He was infatuated from the start. "I'm sorry about what I said in the forest about the fire—"

"It's okay." She interrupts, surprising both of them instantaneously. Slowly her left knee bounced up and down ceremoniously while he put down the bandage-like, wetted paper frustratedly. Stiles wanted her to open up, not to let him walk all over her because that wasn't her. You didn't have to know Valentina for as long as someone like Derek had to realise that she was never going to compromise without a fight and her words made it sound like she was compromising without a fight.

"I just... I want you to be able to trust me— to trust all of us. That won't happen if I keep being a dick." His sweet words seem to give her a sense of comfort underneath all of the fortifications that she put in place. This disturbed her so much that she didn't even notice his hand carefully start to rub away at the blood and grime at the corner of her face; almost like it was a way of forcing her to look at him, which would soon become an action to invoke weakness, as her mother would put it.

"It's gonna take some time," she instantly noticed the way that his emotion dropped slightly, and even though it was small amount, it caused a little pit form at the bottom of her stomach that her made her feel sick. Later she would realise that it also made her wish that the world was made up of candy and rainbows just so that she could see him smile. "But I think I will. One day... I think I will." Her attempts at consolation only furthered the awareness of her vulnerability, but it was worth it. It was all worth it when she saw his lips perk up into a small smile. 

"Tell me when you do."

⋆。 ̊ ⋆ ࿐

Another man had gone missing. Well, supposedly missing, according to Scott, who hadn't see a Senior, that got his dog checked up at the clinic, leave. As it should have been expected, his best friend succumbed to the solution of not being sacrificed, which was what he was theorising happening, was to have a sex. This was more than awkward for the McCall boy to tell her during the time between walking to the starting line for the cross country, yet she easily kept a straight face and focused on the facts. 

Valentina rolled her shoulders back slowly before she noticed who was standing next to her with a rather confusing an expression: a mix of fear and pity, maybe? Either way, she didn't have a chance to speak because Isaac had already begun. "The basement thing wasn't cool but I don't regret it. You might've died and Derek lived anyway." Her initial reply-idea was to simply stand there and let him figure out that she secretly appreciated what she did but it was the way that spoke... it reminded her of her brother. And for that exact reason, she decided to divert from her natural conversational choices.

"Good, you shouldn't." His surprise was obvious and it was an emotion she seemed to be causing quite frequently lately. "What? You're trying to tell me that your aim in life isn't to keep me alive?" She wondered sarcastically which almost immediately brought a smirk to his face as he was given the sense that for whatever reason, the young Hale was loosening up to him. Ever since Stiles told him a bit about what he learn of her past, Isaac tried to act like he didn't know anything about it but he couldn't never stop that part of himself that almost tip-toed around her. However this could lead him to also loosen himself up.

"I've been your body guard ever since you tried to drown me in an ice tub. It's my job, Miss Hale." Finally she let herself grin stupidly at the werewolf, who almost immediately reciprocated the gesture. When walking past to stand at the front of the students doing the cross country, he nudged her playfully before a pair of identical twins also passed her. A frown overcame her features until suddenly the whistle blew out, causing the hairs on her arm to stand. However, the whistle that indicated the start of race went before she had the chance of doing anything.

She decided that she would keep a casual pace at the front of the clump of people who were running in the middle. It gave her a good view of everything that was going on and she knew she needed it when she saw Isaac bolt to the identical twins who she'd just seen. Somehow, she managed to keep in all her curses for his careless behaviour and she noticed Scott sprint ahead, most likely to stop whatever fight was about to happen between. Everything felt dramatic, and can I really be bothered, she thought as she was sure that the two bones could hold their own ground.

That was until her supernatural hearing helped her to ease drop in what was happening. "Ethan, I always forget, how many bones in the human body?" Oh, for fuck's sake, she cursed before pressing her legs to move faster, and immediately going to where the sound indicated they were. How much would it take for her to get a break? She didn't have any money but that didn't mean that she wasn't willing to steal any. She was more than willing.

"I don't know. Let's count."

Scott moved in forwards while the two twins were staring at Isaac, therefore he managed to get a good hit on Aiden's face. "That's one," letting out a small sigh, the Hale came in from behind and bent Ethan's arm back in the complete wrong angle. The sound of multiple cracks made her flinch slightly; it was all too familiar. "That's three." She told them all, just as the McCall boy did, and tried to shake off her previous feeling. They weren't going to be able to win this fight if her head wasn't on straight.

However, just as they were letting their claws rip through their skin and their fangs cut way into place with the rest of their teeth, a scream interrupted them. Out of all of them, Scott was the first out of the clearing, followed then by Isaac. She simply waited there for a few seconds, curious as to why they were giving up so quickly, and as to what may happen when she turned her back. A demeaning head nod into the direction that the scream came in from was all she needed to make her believe that she wasn't going to be killed from behind. She wouldn't be surprise though, they seemed cowardly enough to stoop lower than that.

Still trying to shake off whatever feeling she had been giving earlier, her heart stopped and so did her attempts when she saw why there was a shriek. A young male, possibly a year or two older than her, hung to a tree, tied there by a garrotte around his neck. Blood ran down his clothing like a drunkard who had just spilt all of his wine over himself. The smell, the sight, hell even the sound was enough to send her into that place that she had been fighting off ever since she heard one of the twins' bones crack.

"Baby, you need to stop this. Hands up." I widely shook my head again, refusing to let my mother do to me what she had done the previous nights. Last night it was really hard, that stern face that my mother had was enough to make any man concede. Now, I couldn't help but remember how kind my mum had been that morning: she made us all pancakes and she never ever did that. They were really nice too. The task always seemed to fall onto Josie, and she tried not to burn them but it didn't always work like that. Josie always gave me the lesser of the burnt ones though: she's cool like that.

"Hey, get out of the way. Get back! Get this area cordoned off before they trample every piece of evidence."

"Back up! Everyone back up!"

"Fine, have it your way." A sudden sharp sensation ran through my entire body as sharp claws seized me via the back of my neck. I couldn't control her screams when my mum lifted me up from the ground and carried me in mid air. "Silence, child. You'll just make this harder." I knew what she had threatened was true because I knew where I was going. Every single part of me ached for somebody to find me. At this point, I would have settled for one of those mean Argent hunters to find me, I just didn't want to go back there.

"Dad, just come here. Look at it, it's the same as the others, you see?"

"Yeah, I see that. Do me a favour and go back to school, yeah?" Noah moved on from his conversation with his son swiftly, already feeling the needle to have better grasp on this situation at hand. All of these children around him weren't going to help him make sure the evidence wasn't contaminated. "Coach, can you give us a hand here?"

"You heard the man. Nothing to see here. Probably just some homeless kid." The teacher attempted to reason, feeling so out of depth by the situation he found himself in. It was just supposed to be a stupid cross-country. He reminded himself to go to the office to see if he could get a pay raise for the amount of trauma working at this school was causing him.

"Coach, he was a senior."

Isaac forced himself not to slap his teacher on the back his head just like how Coach had covered his mouth before sighing into it, and asking, "he wasn't on the team, was he?"

"Kyle! Oh God, Kyle! Oh, God!"

"Please! Mum, please don't! I won't— I won't do it again, I swear."

"Stiles?" The boy turned his head in response to his father calling his name, humming in the hopes that he was finally going to be willing to involve him what was going on. "You might want to check on your friend... Valentina?" He turned again to see her eyes, duller than he had ever seen before, staring straight at Kyle's dead body. Her gaze like a moth to a light, the light being what Stiles believed the be the cause of death, most likely: the cut that ran around his throat. Cautiously, he moved closer to her, however made sure not to make any contact with her skin.

"Are... are you okay?" He asked gently.

"Only the water can save you now." Please let me drown. If you loved me at least one, you hold me down for even longer. You'd break my bones after I'm dead.

As if shocked my a sudden lightning strike, she turned her head away from the body and cleared her throat. Stiles could only figure from the things around them that had led to her phase-like state and he made a silent promise to himself that the next time (which he really hoped there wasn't) he would do whatever he could to stop her from seeing it. "Yeah." She finally responded, letting her eyes run around the rest of their surroundings that didn't include the body a boy a little bit older than them. "Are you?" His poker face had never been good and his surprise was obvious because his eyebrows lifted: he hadn't expected that.

Not quite knowing what she wanted as an answer or how exactly to answer, he nodded slowly and gave himself the time to remind himself that he hadn't really been thinking much about how he himself felt seeing another dead body. He decided that he felt like he didn't want to see anymore, and that he didn't want her to see anymore either. Familiar with the emotion, he could the anxiety coming off of her and in the hopes in comforting her, he said: "This can be one of the moments if you want." Her eyes met his in a moment of, what she'd consider, weakness when she remembered what words he was referencing back to.

If there's a moment where you don't think you can talk to anyone, you can, um, if you want to... talk to me. I won't judge you.

If she had been a different person, she may have smiled, she may have even let herself hug him... but she wasn't. Stiles knew that, though, and didn't expect anything else from her. Valentina didn't know that he was being to truly understand her reactions, mannerisms, how she felt in certain situations, when she was uncomfortable. He was being to understand her. That was why he didn't feel the tiniest bit offended when she dismissed his offer. "I'm okay. Let's go." He was just happy that she was willing to say that to him, so they walked over to the two other werewolves in silence.

"You see the way the twins looked at him?" Isaac noted, immediately wanting to get onto a different way that he could reason killing them. He looked over to the young Hale when she entered her talk with Stiles, and it was clear that she was shaken up however, she seemed less than she was when she snapped Aiden's bones. Even he could admit that he cringed at the sound; Valentina had a complete other reaction that was worse than his mild discomfort.

"Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened." Stiles added as he tried to re-enter the conversation. He didn't want any of them to linger on what she was feeling, especially when it was obvious that she wasn't feeling herself — far from it. It was also obvious that his friend had no idea what a hint was because he was staring at her with one of the most kindest looks he'd even seen. That kind of look would made him spill his emotions out but to her, she'd think of it like a look of pity.

"No, no, they knew."

His nose scrunched in confusion. In his mind, there was no way that the looks of shock of their face scream we know and you don't haha and he was excellent at reading people. "The kid was strangled with a garrotte, alright? Am I the only one recognising the lack of werwolfitude in these murders?" Stiles attempted to reason with him, however it was usually since Isaac decided to debate his point even further. "Oh, you think it's a coincidence? They turn up, and then people start dying."

Crossing his arms lightly over his chest, he let a brief exhalation out of his nose: a sign that he was fighting his temper. If everyone listened to me, we would never be stuck in these positions in the first place! He thought, and reminded himself that Beacon Hills had a mind of its own when it came to how much trauma they wanted to citizens to got through. Well... "Well, no, but I still don't think it's them."

All of them turned to Scott in hopes of a deciding vote, anything to give them a pointer on what the hell was now happening in the troublesome town of Beacon Hills. "Well, he's got a point. But seriously, dude... human sacrifices?" It was clear that the appointed leader was skeptical on his friend's suggestion, that much was clear to see.

"Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks, and then will immediately disappear, and if I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal. But you're telling me you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?" Despite the complete truth in his statement, and hearing her whole life, it still seemed odd to just have someone describe what she was like that, in such a joking manner. She could imagine what would have happened to her if she had said something like that with her mother by her side, and in real life, Valentina couldn't stop herself from flinching.

Scott murmured, "That's a good point too."

"I don't care, alright? They killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me... and I'm gonna kill them, too."

"You won't be alone." Isaac immediately turned after hearing someone agree with him, however they were all slightly curious as to what she was planning to say next that would support her previous word. "They're alphas, probably part of that pack, right? And I've learnt the hard way that there's only one way to deal with alphas like these."

"But how'd you know that they are like that?"

"I can see it in their eyes, Scott. They're just like mine."

not proof read ✌️

hope you liked it! gave you the hospital scene, pls don't hate me? and a bit of ✨trauma✨

next chapter up next year!
im joking... i think.

if u see things that don't make sense or wrong spelling please point it out so i can go back and change it pls xx

have a great day/night and week!