A/N: don't roast me for this please lmao, there's one more chapter after this one and then Part One is complete, and idk when part two will be up but I wanted to finish this chunk for you guys lol

Now in the beginning of July, with school having ended and Stiles now on the road to Virginia with Lydia to start his training with the FBI, Katherine couldn't remember a time when she had ever felt more alone in her life. It had never mattered how many friends she'd had in her life, because no matter what she'd always had her brothers to fall back on.

But Stiles was gone, and Scott, Malia and Lydia would all be leaving for the start of the next school year and to say she was anxious at just how many things were changing would be an understatement. As someone who dealt with nearly debilitating anxiety, she found that keeping to patterns was a good way for her to keep herself calm and collected.

The pack was part of her pattern, and now she felt as if everything was close to falling apart. She hadn't really spoken to anyone since he'd left, not in the mood to be around happy people as much as she was happy for Mason and Corey, and she wanted to let Liam come to terms with Hayden leaving without having to listen to him complain about it.

She did care about him, but she couldn't listen to him talk about Hayden again, knowing the memories of the last time he'd done that would crush her. So she hadn't spoken to anyone other than her dad, Stiles and Lydia, and Scott since graduation had happened. The only communication she'd had with Malia was the two of them sending memes back and forth since she was studying to work on summer school, but she wasn't really in the mood to be around people.

As much as she knew it would make him smug if he ever heard her admit it, she was utterly dependent on Stiles.

Katherine had started looking to him after their mom died, just as she'd told him at the way station when they found each other in the hunt, and she knew that as much as she did love her dad, that would never change. Stiles had been the one who bought her the first box of pop tarts she'd ever eaten, because they hadn't had anything for dinner and their dad had been called in late, and had taught her how to make Mac and cheese.

When she'd gotten her first period when she was 12, he'd forced her to take a shower and then biked his way on over to the McCall's house and panic-hauled Melissa back to the house because he'd had no idea how to help her. Then he'd bought her a bunch of chocolate, Advil and a beat pack as well as a box set of Gilmore Girls so she could cry over that instead of how she accidentally spilt water on the floor.

Then she'd witnessed first hand just how much he loved Lydia, and had been watching it ever since that night in the high school in Scott's first month as a werewolf, and she'd been thrilled to see it blossom from Lydia ignoring him into her sobbing over missing the chance to say she loved him back. She knew that the two of them were meant to be together, but the idea of them being far away from her was the most stressful thing she'd ever had to experience.

Katherine had spent the majority of her life looking up to her brother as a role model, and had never been put in the situation where she had to live without him. That was partially why she didn't want to talk to anyone; she didn't know who she was supposed to be without her big brother.

So when Liam knocked on the front door for fifteen minutes while texting her repeatedly until she finally got up and grabbed her buzzing phone.

🥍LIAM🥍
do you wanna hang
out today???

Kat

Kat

Katherine

Are you mad at me
or something?

Okay fine I'm asking
your dad

ffs dude he said you haven't
gotten out of bed in two days
for anything other than Thai
food are you kidding me???

I'm coming over

Open the door right now or
I swear to god, Kat—

are you home

are you home

Kat

Kat

Kat

Kat

He was continuing to knock as she unplugged her phone from the charger and looked over the 15 notifications before making the decision to respond. Her fingers were quick, though stiff since she hadn't texted anyone in quite a while.

🍫KAT🍫
you might want to
knock a little louder
there, dude

There was a beat of silence, and then the knocking increased in both volume and succession until it sounded like her front door was about to collapse. After sitting there for a minute, listening to him grow annoyed with the both of them, she got off her ass out of bed and grumbled as she walked down the stairs and then she pulled the door open. "Can I help you?"

He was standing there with his hair ruffled in a way that made it look like he'd just woken up, and his clothes proved just that; sweats and a baggy tee shirt with Luke Skywalker on it. She could help but smile, knowing she'd given it to him.

"Do you want to hang or or not," he asked expectantly, brows raising.

Katherine blinked once and thought about it, then sighed. "Not."

"Too bad, I'm coming in anyway and you're going to be sad and that's okay," he huffed, squeezing through the gap in the door she'd been about to close.

Liam didn't say anything after he closed and locked the door, just pulled her into his arms and held her tightly enough that it felt as if she had her own weighted blanket. One of his hands were flat between her shoulder blades, all but crushing her into him, and the other hand was cradling the hack of her head. She didn't even realize how much she'd missed him in the week since they'd last spoken.

So she pressed her forehead into the crook of his neck and grabbed handfuls of the back of his shirt, sniffing once. "I don't know what I'm gonna do without him and Scott," she whispered, feeling tears soak into the fabric as she closed her eyes. "I've always had them and now they're leaving, and so are Malia and Lydia, and I don't—"

"—they're your brothers, Kat," Liam cut her off gently, pulling her back. He held her face in his hands, looking at her so softly with those pretty blue eyes of his that she couldn't deny she felt safe. "No matter what they're always going to be your brothers, okay? Nothing will change that. And you've got Mason, and Corey and you'll—" he paused, as if debating on whether or not to continue. "And you'll always have me, whenever you might need me, okay? Always."

A sentence came to mine, one she'd said to him only once before.

One sentence; eight letters; three words.

Sure, she'd already said it to him once while standing on a lacrosse field before losing her life as she knew it to find her brother. But if he wasn't over Hayden yet, then she didn't want to say it again.

Not after what she'd lived through the first time she'd shared those feelings, because she didn't want to have to face that again. So instead, she smiled at him and and pushed hair away from his face. "And you'll always have me," she promised him softly, feeling her mouth twist into an emotional, rueful smile.

He stared at her for another moment, then dragged her into the kitchen. "Do you have flour, sugar, eggs and all that stuff?"

"Yes," she nodded slowly.

"Good; 'cause I'm making you cookies to stress eat."

True to his word, he did make her cookies and Katherine was pleasantly surprised to find that they weren't terrible. He'd been funny to watch making them, though.

Trying to find where everything was in the kitchen because he didn't want help.

Awkwardly picking egg shells out of the bowl.

Attempting to make them all even sized.

Grumbling as he burnt himself on the oven while putting the tray in.

The entire morning was endearing to witness, and as much as she was annoyed at his persistent knocking on the front door that forced her out of bed, she was utterly grateful that he'd shown up. It had been a good few days since she'd laughed as much as she did sitting on the kitchen counter that evening, and she found it impossible to stay in her funk.

When the cookies were ready they were sitting in the living room on the floor with their backs against the couch, a plate of cookies, a box of chocolate fudge pop tarts, and a cake Liam had run out to grab from the grocery store set between then. Through out the afternoon practically all of it was eaten, the two of them pausing sheepishly with a half chewed mouthful of cookie in each of their mouthes, but when she realized who it was she wasn't even remotely apologetic about it.

Her dad had come home halfway through an episode of criminal minds, so they'd switched to watching Jurassic Park with him for a couple hours while they ate their dinner and nagged her to take her pills on time. After finishing the second movie he'd said goodnight to them both before heading up to bed, begrudgingly telling Liam he could stay the night as long as his parents knew where he was.

He put the third movie in as the bedroom door shut above them, and Katherine made a show of taking her sleeping pill when Liam was facing her again, rolling her eyes at his triumph and smile. "Thank you...for coming over today," she mumbled softly as he settled back down beside her, grabbing a blanket from the couch cushion behind him.

"I was going to find a way in even if you didn't open the door," Liam shrugged, setting it over their legs. "I get worried when you don't answer my texts."

"I'm sorry," she sighed, glancing up with a tiny frown as the kid up on the screen went parasailing over the island of dinosaurs. "Idiot...no, I really am sorry, though," Katherine continued, taking a nibble at one of the cookies on the plate. "When I get really anxious like I am right now, I don't always know how to deal with it so I just kinda shut down, and I end up ignoring everyone, which isn't really a bad thing because I'm not good to be around and...I don't know."

She heard him inhale sharply as she leaned her head onto his shoulder, but couldn't help but smile when his arms hooked around her again and held her like he was afraid she would disappear again. "I want to be part of all that, Katherine," he murmured softly to her, turning the volume down on the screen. "I don't...it doesn't matter if you think it's an ugly part of you, if you're having a horrible day or one of the greatest in your life. I want to be here through all of it, okay?"

A faint smile drifted up onto her lips, and she just nodded against him. "Okay," she agreed quietly.

As the movie went on and her pill kicked in, Katherine couldn't help but feel her eyes droop closed. She did try to stay awake, but knowing that this was caused by the sleeping pill she knew that she couldn't fight it. "You tired?" She heard him ask quietly, tugging her to him more tightly.

"Considering I took a sleepy pill and my eyes are closed I'd say so," she mumbled.

She felt him laugh beneath her but couldn't bring herself to care. "You go to sleep, okay?" He murmured, smoothing his hand over her back with didn't help her with keeping her eyes open. "You go to sleep, I'll be here when you wake up."

As much as she wanted to tell him she had no intention of falling asleep until the movie ended, she was already drifting into a world of unconscious while he used his fingers to comb through the knots in her hair.