I do not own Teen Wolf or any of its characters. I only own Celeste. If I did then I wouldn't be sad and broke.

Song – Electric Feel // MGMT

Celeste's POV

"She came here?" Stiles vocalized his doubts, "You're sure?"

Celeste looked at a bemused Scott for confirmation, the four of them currently standing on the outskirts of the Hale Estate.

"This is where the scent leads," Scott reiterated from his stance beside Allison.

The shortest member of their group shivered subtly as the biting chill of night forced its way through the way-too-big coat she had borrowed from Scott.

She couldn't even begin to imagine how a completely barren teenage girl would fair in this weather.

"Alright," Stiles sighed, "well, has Lydia ever even been here?"

"Not with me," Allison denied with finality.

Scott shook his head to signify he hadn't taken her either, and they all looked to Celeste.

"No," Celeste spoke quietly, "there's no way Lydia would risk her designer heels to trek this far into the forest for a decrepit house."

"Maybe she came here on instinct," Allison offered, "like, she was looking for Derek."

"You mean looking for an Alpha?" Scott nodded his agreement.

"Wolves need a pack, right?" Allison inquired.

"Not all of them," Scott disagreed.

"But would she have been drawn to an Alpha?" Allison pressed, "Is it an instinct to be part of a pack?"

"Yeah, we're stronger in packs," Scott informed his girlfriend.

"Like strength in numbers?"

"No," Scott denied, "like, literally stronger, faster, better in every way."

"As much as I'd love to quote old Daft Punk songs with you guys, maybe we should focus on finding Lydia," Celeste spoke with impatience, tuning the two lovers out as she joined Stiles in surveying the area.

"Woah, hey," Stiles nudged her, kneeling on the ground a few feet away, "look at this."

Celeste focused her attention on a transparent wire pulled taught between two rods stakes in the ground, and Allison joined them.

"You see this?" Stiles ran his hands along it, "I think it's a trip wire."

"Well, trip it," Celeste urged him on, her excitement getting the best of her.

Stiles grinned at her, pulling the wire up. Nothing was heard except for a faint rustling of leaves behind them.

"Stiles?" Scott's voice called from behind them, sounding strained.

"Yeah, buddy?" Stiles asked, turning around.

Celeste cackled at the sight of the teen wolf hanging upside down, tied to a tree by one foot connected to a rope.

"Next time you see a trip wire," he reprimanded his best friend, "don't trip it."

"Noted," Stiles muttered sheepishly.

The three moved forward to release their friend, but paused when Scott frantically told them to.

"Someone's coming," he forewarned, "hide."

Stiles grabbed ahold of Celeste, who in turn grabbed Allison's hand, and the three rushed to conceal themselves behind an outcrop of trees a few yards from Scott.

"Scott," they heard a familiar voice address their friend.

"Mr. Argent," the teen greeted the hunter as casually as one could when hanging upside down from a tree.

"How are you doing?" Chris' informal question was contrasted by the strict tone he used.

"Good," Scott replied, "you know, just, hanging out."

Stiles had to physically hold Celeste back from revealing herself to the group of hunters just to flick Scott for the terrible pun.

"This one of yours?" Scott chatted nervously, "It's good. Nice design, very, uh, constricting."

"What are you doing out here, Scott?" Chris demanded.

"I'm looking for my friend," Scott admitted hesitantly.

"Oh, that's right," the Argent agreed, "Lydia's in your group now, isn't she? Or is it a clique? Is that the word you use?"

The three teenagers hiding behind a vast oak tree stiffened as the hunter mentioned their friend's name.

"Or is there another way to put it?" Chris continued, "Part of your pack?"

"Actually, clique sounds about right to me," Scott's tone had turned tense, dangerous even, at the thought of this group of hunters harming his friend.

"I hope so," the older man warned, "because I know she's a friend of Allison's, and one special circumstance, such as yourself? One I can handle. But not two."

Celeste wondered passingly if he could handle her amputating his feet.

"Scott, do you know what a hemicorporectomy is?" Chris inquired darkly.

"I have a feeling I don't want to," Scott grumbled.

Celeste knew, and her stomach turned at the thought of it happening to Lydia.

"It's a medical term for amputating someone at the waist," Chris practically hissed, "cutting them in half. It takes a tremendous amount of strength to cut through the tissue and the bone like that. Let's hope a demonstration never becomes necessary."

Deadened leaves crunched faintly in the distance, signaling the hunters' retreat. The trio raced out from their hiding place, bounding towards Scott.

"You okay?" Allison fretted in typical girlfriend fashion.

"Just another life-threatening conversation with your dad," Scott spoke in a fake cheery tone.

"Stiles, help me with this," Allison urged, spotting the release for the trap.

Celeste stayed behind, watching as Scott flicked his claws out with precision and control, cutting himself free and landing on his feet.

"Thanks," the werewolf spoke smugly, "but I think I got it."

☾ ☽

"She ate the liver?" Scott asked incredulously as he walked into school with Stiles and Celeste.

"No," Stiles denied, "I didn't say she ate it, I just said it was missing, and you know what? Even if she did, so what? It's the most nutritious part of the body."

"Please," Celeste scoffed, though she appreciated Stiles' attempts to normalize her best friend's possible cannibalistic behavior, "if Lydia was going to eat someone's internal organs, she wouldn't eat the liver. She'd go for the pharynx. Much classier."

"That's true," Stiles nodded in agreement.

"I never ate anyone's liver," Scott pointed out, most unhelpfully.

"Yeah, right," Stiles scoffed, "because when it comes to werewolves, you're a real model of self-control."

"What?" Celeste gasped in fake shock, "Stiles, what are you talking about? Leaping spider-monkey style onto the hood of your ex-girlfriend-who-is-now-you-current-girlfriend's car when she talks to another guy is a completely viable reaction."

"Actually wait, hold on," Stiles stopped his friends on the bottom step of the school entrance, "you're the test case for this, so we should be going over what happened to you."

"What do you mean?" Scott was confused.

"I mean, like, what was going through your mind when you were turning, you know?" Stiles pressed, "What were you drawn to?"

"Allison," Scott admitted with a dreamy smile, causing Celeste to coo and Stiles to groan.

"Nothing else?" Stiles asked in frustration, "Seriously?"

"Nothing else mattered," Scott spoke like the sweet little cupcake he was.

"Hey, I'll catch up with you guys later," Celeste nudged Stiles, spotting someone out of the corner of her eye, "I want to follow up on something."

"No," Stiles whined, but the girl was already hurrying after the retreating form of Isaac Lahey.

"Lose the scarf, douche-bag," she called on her route, causing an annoyed Jackson to flip her off.

Celeste laughed to herself, jogging after Isaac, and she was out of breath by the time she reached him.

"Hey," she panted as the boy stopped in front of her, "can I talk to you for a second?"

"Uh, yeah," Isaac was more fidgety than usual, "what's up?"

"You work at the graveyard, right?" she inquired, squinting as she had to look towards the sun in order to make eye contact with the taller boy.

"Yeah," Isaac confirmed, "but I didn't see Lydia. I'm really sorry, I know you guys are friends."

"Oh," Celeste pouted slightly, "well, thanks anyways. Woah, ouch."

The final part of her statement was directed towards the black-and-blue bruising surrounding the boy's cerulean blue eye.

"It's fine," Isaac brushed her concerns off, "I'm fine."

"Hey, are you okay?" Celeste frowned, "You seem out of it. More so than usual, I mean."

"M'fine," Isaac denied, "I gotta get to lacrosse practice, I'll see you around."

With that, the curly-haired boy took off into the sea of students, leaving a bewildered Celeste behind in his dust.

☾ ☽

Celeste frowned at the distraught demeanor of her lab partner, and she had a feeling that it wasn't just due to the pop quiz Harris had just handed out to them.

"Hey," she whispered to him feebly.

She gained no response.

Pouting, she leaned forward and drew a little smiley face on the corner of Isaac's paper, which granted her a twitch of his lips turning upwards, but other than that, nothing.

"This is a pop quiz, Mr. Stilinski," Harris reprimanded the boy speaking in hushed tones to Scott, "if I hear your voice again, I may be tempted to give you detention for the rest of your high school career."

"Can you do that?" Stiles asked nervously, causing Celeste to groan and hold her face in her hands.

"There it is again," the teacher was unamused, "your voice. Triggering the only impulse I've ever had to strike a student repeatedly, and violently. I'll see you at three for detention."

That got a smile out of Isaac.

Stiles opened and closed his mouth like a fish.

"You too, Mr. McCall?" he warned when Scott turned to face his friend.

"No sir," the Hispanic boy denied nervously.

Celeste turned in her seat slightly to look at Danny, sure he was enjoying Stiles' torment.

She frowned at the sight of a black substance trickling down from Jackson's nose.

Jackson apparently noticed it too, wiping at his face and rushing out of the room without uttering a word to Harris.

Celeste tapped her pencil impatiently, but after a moment of waiting she couldn't take it anymore, so she sprung from her seat, chasing after her frenemy.

She raced down the hall towards the bathrooms, only to run straight into a terrified looking Derek Hale.

"Derek?" she asked in confusion, "Dude, you spend way too much time in a high school for a twenty-four-year-old."

"You're okay," Derek sighed out shakily, grabbing her forearms.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," Celeste assured him, "a little more than fine, actually. Did you-,"

"I have to go," Derek cut her off abruptly, "but I'm glad you're okay. We should talk soon."

With that, the old hag of Beacon Hills disappeared from the hallway in the blink of an eye, leaving Celeste alone with only her thoughts.

"Well alright," she muttered, "nice to see you too."

She focused back on the task at hand, striding quickly towards the door Derek had come out of.

"Please don't let me see any genitalia, please don't let me- woah, hey, you okay?"

Celeste's chanting was halted by the sight of Jackson shaking in front of a mirror in the boy's restroom, thick, black liquid flowing out of his ears and nose.

"I'm fine," Jackson snapped, but there was terror embedded deeply into his oceanic irises.

"Yeah," Celeste scoffed, retrieving some toilet paper from the restroom, "you look like shit."

"Thanks," the walking chin-dimple snapped in annoyance, but allowed Celeste to gently clean away the dripping liquid from his face and neck.

"What the hell even happened?" Celeste demanded as she lightly wet the paper in the sink to clean the gunk fully from his face.

"Nothing," Jackson snapped, backing away from her, "I, I'm gonna fix it."

Watching as the boy staggered out of the restroom, Celeste couldn't find it within her to share in his confidence.

☾ ☽

"Okay, that's so adorable I can't decide whether to adopt you guys as my children or curl up in a ball and cry because of jealousy."

Allison giggled like a school-girl in love, which, technically she was, as the two girls looked over the love note Scott had left the taller girl in her locker.

"I like your necklace," Matt Daehler nodded at the silver crescent moon hanging from Celeste's neck, standing at his open locker two down from Allison's.

"Thanks," Celeste smiled, even though the boy gave her a really creepy vibe, "I like your camera, is that a Canon EOS Rebel T6i?"

"Uh, yeah," Matt looked both surprised and pleased, "with an EF-M 15-45 millimeter lens."

"Nice," Celeste couldn't help but gush over the model, cameras held a special place in her heart.

"You wanna try it out?" Matt was asking, but Celeste was too focused on the downtrodden look on her friend's face as two girls gossiped across the hall.

"Not her sister, her aunt," the first one whispered to the other, "the one who murdered all those people?"

"You mean the crazy bitch who killed all those people," the girl with chestnut hair corrected her with a giggle.

"Yeah," the first girl agreed, "the fire, the animal attacks, it was all her aunt."

"Are you kidding?" the second girl spoke in disbelief, "I sit next to her in English."

"Find a new seat," her friend spoke snidely.

"What's wrong, Stacy?" Celeste called to them across the hall, a sickly sweet smile on her face as she tilted her head to the side, "Salty that you peaked in middle school and you're not relevant enough for anyone to talk about so you have to make up rumors of your own?"

The girls looked shocked, Stacy's lip quivering slightly as her friend dragged her away.

"Thanks," Allison laughed slightly, but Celeste could tell her friend was still bothered.

"Someone has to fill in for Lydia while she's gone," Celeste shrugged, "It's going to be okay, Alli-cat."

"Yeah, I know," Allison smiled sadly, "I'm just kind of freaking out right now."

"I wish I could help you, but you don't need me right now," Celeste pouted, before painting a smirk on her face, "You need Scott."

"Wh-," Allison's confused statement was cut off by Celeste shoving her into an empty classroom and shutting the door behind her, knowing Scott was on the other side.

"Ah, kids," Celeste sighed contentedly.

☾ ☽

"Pig," Celeste spat from her positon next to Scott behind a tombstone, observing as Matt Daehler ducked beneath the barrier to get a better shot of Allison and her family in mourning.

The two were currently crouched about thirty yards away from Kate Argent's funeral, there to show moral support to Allison when they needed her most. Stiles was also coming, but he was running a little late, due to Harris' ridiculous detentions.

Scott had insisted they dress properly, so Celeste was wearing a simple black dress that reached her knees, paired with dark tights. She would have worn the dress from winter formal, but she burned it in a dramatic attempt to rid herself of the bad memories.

It didn't work.

The only issue with the garment she was currently wearing was that it was short sleeved, and she had forgotten to bring a jacket.

"Woah," Celeste spoke after a moment, "who's the badass old man?"

The white-haired man she was referring to was currently detaining Matt's camera. She physically winced when he took out the memory card and snapped it in half, those things were expensive.

"Yo," Stiles skidded to a halt next to his friends, Celeste greeting with a high five, "who the hell is that?"

The old man was now greeting the rest of the Argent family, Allison in particular looking very uncomfortable.

"He's definitely an Argent," Scott pointed out the obvious.

Allison glanced over at the trio, Scott and Celeste waving at her with big smiles.

She discreetly smiled back.

Celeste was overcome with a single feeling as the procession began: grief. This was odd, seeing as she felt nothing but contempt for the blonde-haired monster encased in the casket in front of them.

"Hey, maybe they're just here for the funeral," Stiles offered, "What if they're the non-hunting side of the family? There could be non-hunting Argents. That's possible, right?"

"You know what they are," Scott responded darkly, "They're reinforcements."

There was a moment of worried silence, and then two large hands grabbed the back of Scott and Stiles' collars and dragged them to a standing position, Celeste quickly getting to her feet.

"You two are unbelievable," Sheriff Stilinski snapped, "pick up my tie."

"Sorry, I know I'm supposed to ask," Stiles muttered sheepishly, retrieving the gray tie from the ground.

"Celeste," Stilinski sighed, "why do hang out with these two?"

"I'm sorry," she frowned, "they dragged me here, there was nothing I could do."

Stiles looked at her in utter betrayal.

"You poor girl," the sheriff sighed, "are you cold? You look cold. Here, have my jacket."

"What?" Stiles snapped, "No, she can take my flannel."

"No," Celeste stopped him from shirking off his only form of protection against the cold, "I want the police jacket. It's way cooler. Thanks John."

"Smart girl," the man smiled at her, handing the girl his sheriff's jacket.

"Since when are you on a first name basis with my dad?" Stiles looked so confused.

"The real question is since when did our country start tolerating people like Donald Trump, am I right John?" Celeste evaded his inquiry.

"She gets it," Stilinski nodded.

"What is happening?" Stiles whispered.

The sheriff escorted the three teenagers to his police cruiser, allowing Celeste to sit in the front seat, of course.

"Four-one-five Adam," the man's police radio crackled to life, and both Stiles and Celeste straightened their posture attentively.

"I didn't copy that," Stilinski spoke into the radio, "did you say four-one-five Adam?"

"Disturbance in a car," Stiles and Celeste spoke in unison, fist bumping to acknowledge their superiority over Scott.

"They were taking a heart attack victim determined DOA, but on the way to the hospital, something hit them."

"Hit the ambulance?" Stilinski asked incredulously.

"Copy that," the informer spoke, "I'm standing in front of it right now. Something got in the back, there's blood everywhere, and I mean everywhere."

The trio of teens looked at each other in panic, all of them assuming the worst.

"Alright, unit four," Stilinski spoke, "what's your twenty?"

"Route five and Post," the deputy delivered, "I swear, I've never seen anything like this."

The three exchanged looks, before rolling out of the vehicle Oliver Queen style and making their way to the crime scene, on their own time.

☾ ☽

"What the hell is Lydia doing?" Stiles demanded as the three lay behind a mound of dirt a little while away from the attacked ambulance.

"I don't know," Scott spoke in horror, taking in the blood splatters both inside and out of the vehicle.

"Lydia's not doing anything," Celeste defended, "and even if she was, he was D.O.A, she hasn't killed anyone."

"Yet," Stiles forewarned, causing Celeste to squeeze his head between her thumb and index finger, "what kept you from doing that? Was it Allison?"

"I hope so," Scott sighed out.

"Do you need to get closer?" Stiles asked, referring to Scott's ability to track Lydia.

"No, I got it," Scott sniffed the air.

Scott made a move to get up, only to be stopped by Celeste grabbing his hand.

"Scott, I really need you to find her," Celeste pleaded of him, "just- just please find her."

"I will," Scott assured her.

Stiles rubbed Celeste's back soothingly as the two of them watched the teen wolf bound away.

☾ ☽

"We'll find her," the Sheriff was assuring Celeste from the crime scene, where he had dragged her and Stiles after discovering them in the woods.

Celeste smiled softly, but her focus was elsewhere.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a glimpse of strawberry blonde.

She snapped her head to the right, to meet the trembling, very naked, dirt covered form of Lydia Martin.

"Lydia?" she called out in disbelief, causing everyone else to look at the nude girl as well.

"Well," the girl called, tears glistening in her eyes, "is anybody gonna get me a coat?"

Celeste raced forward, shirking off the sheriff's coat and covering her best friend with it, helping her to get her shaking arms through the sleeves.

The jacket fell mid-thigh on the girl, covering all the essential parts, but the female must have still been unimaginably freezing.

"Hey, you're okay," she soothed a now crying Lydia, the girl running forward into Celeste's arms, "let's get you home, yeah?"

Jackson was still spewing out black blood, Isaac and Derek were still acting shady, Lydia was still a possible cannibal, but to Celeste, at least for the moment, none of it mattered.

She had her best friend back.

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Two updates in two days!! I feel so good rn.

I have no news for you guys because it's only been a day since I updated. I only said that to reiterate the fact that I updated twice bc I'm proud of myself.

If only I had this kind of zeal for Melliflouous and Serendipity. Oops. We'll get there.

Love you and stay hydrated,

-Belle xx