A/N: Okay guys, here is the next installment! Hope you like it - your comments are literally flawless.

With this chapter is a picture of Rajanish, just how much of the story he'll be a part of... well you'll have to wait and see! I'd love to know what you think.

Enjoy the chapter guys!

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Chapter Four: Finding the Next Step

"So you want to go get pizza or something?" Erica asked after they had finished handing in her resumes.

"Uh, sure, I could eat some pizza," Isaac said and Erica rolled her eyes.

"You know you could just say 'no thanks I want to go bang my boyfriend'", she said and he laughed, shaking his head.

"That was not what I was thinking about," he said.

"Please, you've been in and out of arousal the whole time we've been out and I highly doubt it's because of me," she said and Isaac smiled to himself. "I mean you barely even look at my boobs anymore."

Isaac scoffed, "Please, I never looked that much before anyway."

Erica slowed her steps and gave him a look with an eyebrow high on her forehead and Isaac just grinned with a shrug.

"That's what I thought," she said and they kept walking. "What do you even stare at on Scott? He's a pretty skinny little dude."

Isaac shrugged and Erica rolled her eyes as his heartrate elevated a little.

"He's got a pretty great ass though," he said.

"You would know," she said in a sing-song voice.

"Intimately," he said with a grin and Erica punched him in the arm.

"Congratulations, I am no longer hungry."

"Hey, you brought it up," he said. "Come on, let's go eat."

"Nope, now all I can think about is―"

"I thought I said keep your mind out of my bedroom," Isaac said. "Come on. Scott's got some study to do anyway."

She shrugged and he rolled his eyes but they headed off to get food anyway.

Danny and Jackson were back in their hotel room before a night out, Jackson working too hard on his hair according to Danny and Danny wearing too much aftershave according to Jackson.

Either way, they were preparing for another big night.

"I'm telling you," Jackson said as he ran his hand through his hair as he cocked an eyebrow at himself in the mirror. "You try too hard."

"I'm not the one preening myself in the mirror," Danny said as he buttoned up his shirt. "Nor am I the one who's been doing it for the past twenty minutes."

"You can't rush perfection Danny," Jackson said and Danny laughed to himself.

"Whatever you need to tell yourself," he said.

Jackson was just about done, only changing his shirt one more time.

"So," Danny said. "Original plan was to fly home in two weeks, are we still thinking that's our plan?"

"Didn't think we had much of a plan Danny boy," he said.

"You didn't, I don't have the same luxury as you in terms of disposable cash," he said. "I probably only have enough left for the rough plan that we had."

Jackson shrugged. "I can cover it."

"As rich as I know you are, there is no way I'm going to let you do that," Danny said. "I mean hey, by all means, you could stay."

Jackson just shrugged again. He didn't know what he wanted to do.

On one hand he could stay, there was always more to see and do. On the other, he could head back and have to face up with reality and start making some serious decisions about his future.

Then again, if he stayed he would have to be alone and he didn't know if he could handle being alone with his own thoughts.

"Let's just go out, can we do that?" Jackson said and Danny grinned.

"You need to loosen up," he said. "Get yourself in the mood."

"You going to help me with that are you?" Jackson asked with a raised eyebrow.

Danny walked over and clapped his hand down on his shoulder.

"I am that hard up at the moment that I would even consider you," he said. "And that's why you're going to give me the room for an hour or so tonight."

"Please, you don't need an hour," Jackson said. "And you'd be lucky to have me."

"Believe me, I need an hour," Danny said, giving him a wink as he opened the hotel door.

"What the hell do you need with an hour?" Jackson asked as he grabbed the room key and walked past him into the hall.

Danny laughed again, "Oh you poor depraved soul."

Derek woke up the next morning to an empty bed, sitting up as his eyes adjusted to the morning light.

He looked around the room to see Stiles sitting at the table in the corner and scribbling something down.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked, voice all scratchy.

Stiles turned around quickly, smiling over at him.

"Sorry, I just, I had a brainstorm about something for one of my papers and I had to write it down while it was in my head," he said.

"Of course you did," Derek said as he blinked a few times to wake himself up.

"I won't be too long, promise," he said.

"I've heard that before," Derek said, lying back down in the sheets.

"You should be encouraging my studious habits!" he said as he went back to writing. "Shame on you Derek Hale!"

Derek shook his head with a smile, propping himself up on his elbows as he watched him writing furiously.

"Can you multi-task?" he asked.

"You know me, I can't even focus on one thing let alone multiple things," Stiles said without looking up.

He felt Derek's hands slide up his arms to rest on his shoulders, fingers gently pressing in on the taut muscle.

Stiles let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

"When you asked if I could multitask I thought you might have meant something else," he said.

Derek smiled, leaning down to kiss him on the cheek while his fingers worked in small circles.

"I did," he said and Stiles chuckled.

"I've got to say though, right now I don't know which one I'd prefer," he said and Derek let out a quiet chuckle.

"Then just do your work," he said.

"I told you, I can't multitask."

Derek shook his head and stepped away. Stiles turned in his chair to look at him.

"I didn't mean stop," he said.

"You should study," he said, sitting back down on the bed.

"I just had to write something down," Stiles said with a shrug. "I've got two whole weeks to study. I've only got one weekend to do... this."

Derek looked down at his hands.

"You can do this whenever you want Stiles," he said and Stiles huffed out a small sigh.

"Okay well let me rephrase then, I've only got one weekend to do you," he said. "I mean you can push the button as many times as you want but that doesn't mean I'm going to... well that metaphor didn't really go anywhere did it?"

"I'm just saying Stiles―"

"I know exactly what you're saying and if you don't stop bringing it up you're going to force me to break my hand on your face," he said with a nod and Derek managed a small smile.

"I just want you to be―"

"Young and free and happy, I know, I get it," Stiles said. "I don't need anyone else to have that, okay?"

Derek let out a sigh and nodded.

"Let's just forget I said anything," he said and Stiles nodded sharply.

"That'll be easy enough," he said. "Can we please not have this argument anymore?"

"We say we won't every time Stiles," Derek said, and he was right.

They had been going over the semantics of the same argument for months, ever since Stiles had gone out looking at colleges the year before.

Derek didn't want him to miss out on anything a college student could experience. He wanted Stiles to have exactly the experience he wanted regardless of the restrictions their relationship bound him by. Stiles just wanted Derek to stop acting like he couldn't enjoy his college experience unless he got everything out of it in more ways than one.

Derek knew why Stiles hated the argument but still he brought it up when he could. He didn't want Stiles to go out and do all the things he was telling him he could, but he didn't want him to get older and become resentful that he couldn't.

"I don't want to do any of that Derek, if I did... why would I be here with you?" he said.

"Because you can feel the thing that tethers us together just as much as I can," Derek said and Stiles sighed. "You can feel the tie and sometimes I worry that it... that it clouds your judgement."

"Seriously?" Stiles said. "I might actually punch you in the face."

Derek's lip turned up in a quick chuckle.

"Then you will break your hand."

"Exactly, so don't make me do it," he said, walking over to stand by Derek. "Can we fight about this on the phone tomorrow night or something? You are totally screwing up our last day."

"Oh am I?" Derek said, reaching out to pull Stiles in closer and kissing his stomach slowly.

"Come on Derek," he said. "Can we just... go get breakfast and go see a movie or something? Like normal couples?"

Derek held him tighter a moment, kissing his side again.

"Okay, we can do that," he said.

Isaac and Erica sat at the burger bar on the café strip, hiding at a booth in the back because she'd already handed her resume in to the manager and felt weird hanging around and making awkward eye contact.

"You know if you worked here you would have to speak to them," Isaac said with a grin to which Erica just glared back.

"Shut up," she said. "This job hunting thing sucks."

"Yeah well," Isaac shrugged.

"You don't get to add your input because you don't even have a job," she said accusingly. "You can't live off Derek forever."

"I know that," he said. "I'm still living off my inheritance."

Erica rolled her eyes.

"And when that runs out?"

"I don't know," he said. "How do you just decide what you want to do? I can't even decide what to eat."

Erica laughed to herself.

"I get that, I don't know," she said. "I think all this pressure to find that 'one job' is a whole lot of bullshit that's no longer relevant, you know? Like we don't have to decide today what we want to do because there is so much else we can do first. You used to just go to college and get the right degree and start working for the rest of your life... now I guess we've got more choices."

"That's deep coming from you," Isaac said and she pulled a face, kicking him under the table. "What are your plans for the week then? I guess you don't need me crashing any more of them."

"Not a lot, same old really," he said, looking down at his drink.

"You still uh... you still going to see―"

"Yeah," he said without looking up. "Yeah actually I'm going tomorrow."

Erica nodded. "I still don't get why you bother."

"It's once every two or three weeks, it probably doesn't matter anyway."

"That what Scott thinks?"

This time he looked up and it was her turn to stare fixatedly at her glass.

"Don't," he said. "He knows, I talk to him about it. He's fine."

"Fine or―"

"Erica."

"Alright, okay," she said. "Just saying that if I were you I wouldn't be wasting my time."

"Thanks for the input but I know what I'm doing," he said. "Can we eat without arguing please?"

She smiled. "You know us, it's not really possible."

Lydia flicked her hair over her shoulder as she walked back across campus after her study. She was tired, ready to slow down and stop moving.

She hadn't been sleeping well.

If it wasn't because she was seeing herself everywhere and hearing voices where there was none, it was the rest of the figures that followed her.

She would see them in crowds, sitting in her lecture theatres, on nights out on the town. They were everywhere and she couldn't figure out how to get away from them.

As she walked she could feel her skin prickling, hear the dull whispers that surrounded her. When she looked up she saw the familiar face that she had learned to dread.

"Leave me alone," she said as she walked past him.

He turned in step to follow her and she sucked in a sharp breath.

"Come on Lydia, I thought I was the one you could confide in?" she turned to look up at Stiles' face, so familiar and yet she knew it wasn't really him.

"You are not who you appear to be, and you're definitely not real," she said.

"I'm real enough to you," the figure said, still hidden behind the mask of Stiles' face.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she said quietly, stepping away and walking a little faster.

"Well how about like this?"

Lydia stopped in her tracks at the sound of the voice, turning to see Peter's face staring back at her.

"Now that's oddly disturbing," she said, wondering why her mind would conjure him of all people.

"I'm just asking you to listen Lydia," he said and she shook her head, taking out her phone and dialling.

She put the phone to her ear and turned to walk away from the figure.

"Hello? Lydia? What's up?" Stiles' voice came through the receiver and Lydia let out a sigh as she kept walking.

"I just wanted to know if you have time to talk?" she said. "Feels like it's been a while."

"Uh, yeah that's cool - hey Derek just wait up a second - what's going on?" he said.

She closed her eyes a moment.

"It's your weekend with Derek, I forgot," she said. "Look I'll call you in the week and we can talk then."

"Are you sure I mean I don't mind―"

"It's fine Stiles, enjoy your weekend," she said as she hung up the phone.

She sighed again and the prickling feeling returned to her skin.

"If only you'd listen Lydia..." the figure said.

"Leave me alone!" she hissed, turning back.

"It's not up to me."

She put her hands to her head and screwed up her eyes in frustration, just about ready to scream.

Instead she let out a sob and just fell to her knees, shaking her head as tears fell from her eyes. She pulled her hands away from her face and looked up, only to find herself alone in the quad.

It was getting even harder to handle, she didn't know how much more of it she could take.

Stiles stared down at his phone strangely and Derek stood in the doorway to their room giving him an equally inquisitive look.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah... yeah I just got a weird phone call from Lydia," he said. "She wanted to talk but then she was just... gone."

"You think something's wrong?"

"I hope not, I hope she just wanted to talk but I don't know... she seemed... something, I don't know what."

"If she needs you I'm sure she'll call," Derek said.

Stiles scoffed. "You don't know Lydia, she'll completely shut herself off before she ruins someone else's plans. She's a hell of a lot less self-centred than people seem to think."

He opened up a message and sent her something quick.

If you need anything Lyds just call, seriously anytime you need me

"You still want to get food?" Derek asked.

"Yeah," Stiles nodded. "She wouldn't answer me now anyway she'd think she was interrupting."

"I'm fine for us not to go if you need to talk to her," Derek said and Stiles smiled over at him.

"Oh no, we're going," he said. "I have talked about you way too much for you not to turn up, everyone would think I've been lying this whole time."

They were on their way out to dinner with some of Stiles' new friends from college, something Derek was looking less than forward to. He wasn't social with people he knew and like, let alone strangers.

He would of course be civil and charming and an utter delight, but only Stiles would know the truth.

"Come on, it won't be long, we're just going out to the Chinese place for some food and then coming back here, it'll be like two hours max."

Derek sighed, holding out his hand to Stiles.

"Come on then, let's get it over with."

"Romantic," Stiles grinned.

"Have I ever been?" Derek asked.

"You've had your moments," he said.

"You don't need to tell the story about me showing up to your prom," Derek said. "It wasn't that big of a gesture."

"Don't worry, I won't tell that story," he said as he stepped past Derek in the doorway. "Besides, they already know that one."

Derek grumbled as he closed the door behind them.

Erica and Isaac finished their meals and headed out, squinting a little in the sunlight. Erica sighed as she looked around the street.

"You know, I don't really want to work in any of these places," she said with a scrunch of her nose.

"So what you're saying is I just wasted my entire morning... for nothing?" Isaac said.

She rolled her eyes and looked up at him.

"No, asshole, not for nothing," she said.

He gave her a smile and she returned it, giving his arm a gentle squeeze.

She looked back down the street to see the door of one of the cafés open and the boy she'd spoken to earlier, Rajanish, walking out with a bucket and cleaning gear.

He looked up and caught her eye, awkwardly lifting his hand to give her a wave before seeming to blush and turn back to the windows, taking out a sponge and cleaning them with vigour.

"Look at you," Isaac said with a grin. "Already stealing hearts."

"Shut up, it's sweet," she said. "Don't you have somewhere else to be now that we're done?"

"See you later?" he said.

"Get out of here and go see Scott," she said. "Go."

He grinned and they headed off in separate directions. She looked up at Rajanish again to see him quickly turn back to his task and she smiled to herself before heading out on her way.

Isaac took a little extra time heading home, he knew Scott had probably drowned himself in some kind of study and would probably want more time to concentrate.

By the time he made it back and through the door Scott was sitting at the table with a pen clacking between his teeth and a furrow in his brow.

"Hey," Isaac said with a smile and Scott looked over warmly. "You look productive."

Scott scoffed.

"Not really, I keep getting stuck on the same thing... but let's forget about that, how was your morning?" he asked.

"You know, just walking up and down the street without much result."

"So, basically the same?" he said with a smile and Isaac shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess it was."

"Have you eaten?" Scott asked.

"Uh, yeah, I grabbed a bite with Erica on the way back," he said.

"No worries, I'm just looking for a reason to procrastinate anyway."

"How about I make you something, then once you've eaten you can give up for a few hours and we can watch crappy TV for a while?" Isaac said, walking over to kiss Scott warmly on the mouth.

"Sounds good to me," he said with a smile.

As Isaac walked into their small kitchen Scott couldn't help but notice his heart rate build a little.

"You okay?" he said, following him with his eyes.

"What? Yeah, yeah I'm fine," he said.

"Then why do you seem nervous?" Scott asked.

Isaac sighed.

"Because I was thinking that I would go and see Cassie tomorrow."

This time he heard Scott's heart pound faster as he nodded with his eyes down.

"Oh."

"I mean it's been nearly a month since I went last," he said. "I think it helps you know."

"I know you want to do what you can to help―"

"I mean it's not just about her, I think... I think it's something I need to do to be able to move on from the whole thing."

"I know."

"I've told you before though Scott if you're not comfortable with me going―"

"Isaac, no," Scott said, getting up and walking over to him. "Look, you... you going to see her after everything that happened... I mean it takes a special kind of person to be able to do that and I love that about you."

Isaac smiled softly and Scott took him by the hand.

"I'm not saying I'm thrilled that you go and visit her but it's just who you are. I mean I still think she should have been locked up for life in a prison, but I mean I get why you make the effort."

"She's locked up for life anyway, you know that," Scott nodded but shrugged his shoulders a little. "You could come with me, see what it's like. I mean that way you know she's getting what she needs ― what she deserves."

"I don't know Isaac..." Scott said.

"You don't have to, it might be good for you is all."

"Maybe," he said.

Isaac leant in to kiss him again before turning to the fridge to try and find some food.

"Where exactly is she again?" Scott asked. "I know you've told me before."

"A place called Eichen House."

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A/N: Please leave your beautiful comments my lovelies and as always, I adore you! xo