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CHAPTER ONE;

SEEING RED

"It is not a double date. It is a group thing."

"Do they know it's a group thing? Because I told you I'm not ready to get back out there."

"You were in France and didn't do any dating for four months? God, you're just as bad as Sage." The teenage girl paused for a few moments, and evaluated the two girls' conditions before frowning. "Actually, she's probably worse. I've had to listen to her mope around for the past three weeks about how terrible her life is and how I've completely ruined her hair, even though it's clearly an improvement."

Lydia Martin sat conversing with Allison Argent, one in the passenger's seat while the other took the driver's side. Allison had just returned from her summer vacation in France, and Lydia couldn't have been more relieved. The lump of lazy in the backseat of her car refused to do anything fun with her the last couple of weeks they had out of school, something that was beginning to drive the strawberry blonde crazy. Sage Connelly had been the literal definition of buzz-kill.

Speaking of Sage, she was ignoring the entire conversation happening with her two best friends, her headphones plugging into her ears as she stared out the window. She kept her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, fingers thumping to a beat on her knees every so often. The blonde wasn't going to tell them that she didn't have any music playing, the conversation that they were having right in front of her audible enough for her to frown deeply. Allison Argent hadn't been as easily convinced about Sage's cover-up, glancing back at the blonde.

"What happened? Lydia said there's trouble in paradise. I thought you and Stiles were going strong?" Allison questioned, turning to look back at Sage with quirked eyebrows. Everyone was well aware of the fact that Sage Connelly and Stiles Stilinski were the ultimate duo in Beacon Hills, finding themselves on the same wave length more often than people were comfortable with. The former hunter was just surprised that the teenage girl decided to spent the night with them as opposed to her other two partners in crime.

There was no denying the fact that there was still tension between Allison and Sage after everything that happened with Gerard during the last few months of sophomore year. Thankfully, they both knew that the summer had been something they needed away from each other. It had been forever since the two girls had actually seen one another in person. Despite their rocky friendship, they had called frequently, enough for Allison to talk about the hair cut that she's been planning to do for a while and for Sage to talk about how good her relationship with Stiles was going.

"We're fine," Sage huffed out, giving Lydia a glare for ever opening her mouth. Allison kept her eyes on the blonde, waiting for a proper answer because clearly, things weren't fine. She had barely looked at her phone the entire night, and much like Lydia stated, she wasn't the least bit enthusiastic to be doing anything at all. "We just got into a fight a few weeks ago."

"Fight is an understatement. I thought Sage had killed someone when she showed up on my doorstep at one in the morning looking like something out of a horror movie," Lydia corrected, nearly flinching at the memory. That was one of the hardest times for both girls all summer, apart from the times where Lydia had her own breakdowns about Jackson and the roles were reversed. The only way to lighten the situation was to make a joke out of it. Allison was gone, which meant that they could only lean on one another for support as opposed to their only other close female friend. Despite how they would refuse to admit it, summer became the catalytic moment that secured their friendship.

"What did you do?" Allison asked, her tone accusing as she stared at the blonde. She was plenty aware of the stubborn attitude that Sage possessed, which was something that could easily get on a person's bad side if she let the wrong thing slip or acted in a way that Stiles didn't enjoy dealing with.

Sage's mouth fell open at the assumption, baffled that her friend thought so lowly of her relationship. "Why is he always the one victimized?"

"Because you're you," Lydia deadpanned.

Sage scoffed at her and threw a middle finger her way. The teenage girl didn't want to seem too broken up about the fight that she had with her boyfriend, especially since they were starting school tomorrow and she had to play off that everything was perfectly fine. She was just holding out hope that no one asked her how her relationship was going because she honestly didn't know anymore. Stiles and her barely texted anymore, much less actually see and speak face-to-face. That small detail was exactly why her friendship with a certain teen wolf had also hit a road block. Scott was always around Stiles, which resulted in a series of conversations that the two of them should have had but didn't. One of those was that she didn't have the chance to tell him that Allison was coming home to Beacon Hills instead of staying in France with her father.

"Yeah, well. You're no rose petal either, Lydia," Sage retorted, the act of messing around with the strawberry blonde becoming a second nature to both of them. The blonde turned her attention back to the conversation Allison began."I didn't do anything. I found out he's been texting some girl named Heather. I saw one of them, got pissed, and blew up. He gave up on trying to talk to me when he realized I wasn't going to answer him."

Allison pursed her lips, genuinely sorry for the fact that they were on the outs. Despite the few rough patches that they had, the blonde and her boyfriend couldn't have been more perfect for each other. "I'm sorry. You and Stiles will work it out, though. The two of you are like magnets. You always gravitate towards each other."

"Do I need to remind you if you turn one the opposite way they counter-act one another?" Sage questioned, her eyebrows furrowing as she felt her lips tug down further. Her optimism about everything had been wearing thin, something that everyone around her began to notice any time they tried to show the brighter side of the situation.

"See!" Lydia gushed, turning her head away from the road for a split second to grin wickedly at her two best friends. She couldn't help but feel amused at the simile Allison decided to use to define the relationship between Stiles and Sage. "It's exactly like your relationship!"

"Allison, I've restrained myself from killing her all summer," Sage began, her teeth clenched tightly for a second as she relived all of the times in the past few months that she has threatened the life of the strawberry blonde. "She's literally turned me into her own personal barbie doll, I've walked in on her having sex with some asshole from Devenford, and she left me on the side of the road because I didn't wear heels for her. Please, make sure my restraint wasn't for nothing."

Sage rightfully decided not to relive the night Lydia decided she wanted to bleach Sage's hair an even lighter shade of blonde. To be completely honest, she wasn't even sure her hair could get even lighter. Rest assured, Lydia found a way, and the teenage girls didn't speak to one another for a week after Lydia almost burned away the blonde's vision. There was also the time when she walked in on Lydia having sex with some random senior that looked too much like Jackson for Sage's comfort. Those two events alone just fit in with a long list of problematic issues that they had to face, stuck with each other while everyone else was out of town doing much more lively things than them.

Allison's attention had been attracted at the sex part."So, you clearly moved on, after Ja-"

"Do not say his name," Lydia all but snapped. Sage couldn't help but let out an involuntary wince, trying not to relive all of the times she was forced to watch The Notebook with an overly frustrated Lydia Martin. Jackson Whittemore had left an impact on the strawberry blonde, and it had been branded deep into her identity even after he left to London.

The only brunette in the car bit down on her lip before nodding. "Is he okay? I mean, did everything work out?"

"The doctors looked like total idiots when he turned out alive, but everyone got over it; and, yes, Derek taught him the werewolf one-o-one. Like, how not to randomly kill people during a full moon," Lydia explained, a bitterness thick in her voice as she tightened her grip on the steering wheel. Sage noticed that the strawberry blonde was just rephrasing all of the words that she told her considering the blonde was the only one that still kept in contact with Jackson, apart from Derek who needed to make sure that the teen wolf didn't go off the rails.

"So, you did talk to him."

Lydia shook her head, gesturing one of her hands back towards Sage. "Sage told me."

"Uh hu," Allison agreed, sharing a look with Sage. Anyone that knew Lydia Martin could tell that she was still having issues getting over the fact that her recently-transformed werewolf, formerly controlled Kanima, psychotic, asshole of a lacrosse co-captain had up and left without so much as a single moment to let her recover. "So, you're totally over him?"

"Would I be going on a double date if I wasn't?" Lydia rushed in exasperation, trying to get everyone off the topic of Jackson. Sage snorted from the backseat, mostly relieved that they were off the subject of her relationship. The strawberry blonde seemed to realize her slip-up in her words, and sighed when Allison sent her a look. "Yes, it is a double date. It's not an orgy. You'll live."

"Third wheel, yet again," Sage grumbled as the car halted to a stop. "This is, what, the eighth time since summer started? No, surely it's got to be more than that."

Lydia turned to look at her with a scowl. "This wouldn't happen if you and Stiles just grow up and apologize."

"I'll take my chances—" Sage's voice trailed off when she noticed who was parked directly next to them. Immediately, she ducked her head in the backseat, sinking down until she was no longer visible by the passengers in the jeep next to Lydia's car. Fire heated in her cheeks as she continued to hang her head low, knees falling to her chest in an attempt to look invisible to the other car. "Oh, my god."

"What? What's wrong?" Allison asked, looking for who Sage was hiding from. When she finally noticed the same thing, her eyes widened and she quickly turned her head in the other direction. Scott and Stiles were right beside them, both looking equally as horrified as Sage and Allison felt. "Oh, my god. Oh, my god. I can't see him. Not now. Lydia, go! Just go!"

"But the light's red," Lydia protested, leaning up to see that the light was indeed still glaring red.

"Lydia, drive!" Sage exclaimed. She looked back up just in time to see Stiles rolling down the window on Scott's side, shouting out a single "hey," up until he noticed that she was sitting in the backseat. The blonde didn't even have a chance to see his face fall flat at the sight of her before Lydia was speeding away, running the red light.

The moment that they were out of the eminent threat, Lydia turned her head around to glance in between the blonde and the brunette. "Are you guys okay?"

"Perfect," Sage huffed out, running a hand through her hair as she adjusted her ruffled clothes. They had been disheveled in her attempt to disguise herself, which obviously hadn't gone as well as hoped. She saw Allison nod, both girls still shaken up over seeing a guy that had a significant place in their heart. Sage couldn't help but feel like utter shit because she didn't want this to be her relationship with Stiles. They've had so many fights before, why was this one any different?

That question had been ceased the moment she reminded herself that they weren't fighting about homicidal people or vengeful alphas out to destroy dozens of people. The two of them were, for once in their lives, having an unstable falling out over something so unsupernaturally conflicting that it made them feel like normal teenagers. Much like half of the relationships in the world, they were fighting about him texting another girl with winky faces without her knowing. Everything made total sense, then, and the feeling of utter shit had been washed away with complete frustration.

"Lydia, stop. We need to go back. I need to talk to him," Allison pleaded, changing her mind the moment that she understood she couldn't avoid Scott forever, unlike the blonde in the backseat's hope with Stiles.

Sage stared at her like she was crazy, eyes wide and mouth open in confusion. "You want to go back? No, absolutely not. I'm not getting into another fight wit— Lydia, why did you stop the car?"

"Because I'm tired of seeing you mope around. Besides, they stopped, too," Lydia said, motioning for Sage to turn around. When the blonde whipped her head around to look out the back window, she noticed that the jeep was, in fact, no longer in motion although the headlights were blaring straight ahead, nearly blinding all of the girls.

"Why would they stop?" Allison questioned, completely confused.

Lydia snorted. "It's Stiles and Scott. Do you really want to try applying logic to them?"

Then, all of a sudden, Sage felt a tugging sensation at her stomach and whipped her head around just in time to see something coming barreling towards the car. Her eyes widened, quickly inching forward to slam her hands hard against her friends' seatbelts. They looked at her in confusion for a second, still not aware of the fact that something was coming directly towards them from the darkness of the night.

"Get out of the car!" she hissed, tugging on the doors to try and get out before the thing came through Lydia's windshield. Sage had been a single moment too late because, by the time Lydia had unlocked the doors, the deer came crashing through the windshield, completely shattering it into pieces. 

All three girls found involuntary screams escaping their lips, struggling to find their stability as they tripped and fumbled out of the car. Sage was the last one out, losing her balance on her way out of the car. She had been the one closest to the deer, all of the glass falling directly on top of her when it came crashing through. Her words were lodged in the back of her throat as she backed away from the scene, crashing right into another person. Still in shock, she felt someone grab a hold of her face, forcing her to look their way and away from the accident.

Stiles was in front of her, his hands gripping her cheeks as he stared with panic in his eyes. He kept shaking her head gently so that she would keep her attention on him, trying to assess the damage that had been done to her body rather than the car. "Sage. Sage, baby, are you okay? Look at me, Sage!"

"It came out of...." Sage's voice trailed off, and she tried to pull herself from Stiles' grasp to whip her head around, trying to locate her other two friends that were in the car with her. She barely noticed that she was bleeding, only focused on making sure that Lydia and Allison were okay.

"Sage!" Lydia called out from beside Allison and Scott, who had been speaking to each other in hushed tones. Sage looked in the direction her name was being called and sighed in relief, taking the few steps to get to her best friend so that her arms wrapped tightly around Lydia. Lydia, still fairly knew to the world of the supernatural, trembled in the blonde's arms. "How the hell did that thing just run into us?!"

"I don't know," Sage replied, wishing that she could give the strawberry blonde a better answer when the reality was that she had none. She glanced back in the direction she stumbled out from, noticing that Stiles was still staring at her in concern. "It just came out of nowhere."

She let go of Lydia in reluctance, who kept her distance as far away from the car as she possibly could. As soon as she went to walk forward towards the deer that ran into them, someone reached out to grab her hand, holding her back from moving any further. Stiles stared down at her, shaking his head in exasperation. She kept her green irises on him for a few seconds, taking in that his hair was just a little bit longer than a few weeks ago and dark bags were under his eyes like he hadn't slept in weeks. Essentially, he looked as bad as she did. Sage swallowed hard before looking away from him, watching as Scott moved towards the deer.

"I saw its eyes right before it hit us," Sage began, her voice wavering as she shook her head, trying to think straight. Scott glanced up at the sound of the blonde's revelation, giving the other four a perfect view of the frown that was shaped on his lips. "It's like it was crazy."

"No, it was scared," Scott disagreed. He moved his hand on the deer, and immediately recoiled back as he felt everything the animal felt in it's last few moments of life. "Actually, terrified."

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"Derek! Have you seen my high-waisted shorts?"

Sage walked around in her pajamas, a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth as she leaned over the banister from upstairs to stare at the Alpha. He was sitting on the couch, going through the newspaper up until he was interrupted by the blonde. After a few months, Derek finally decided to move into the same apartment as Sage. The two of them had finally made amends when the werewolf apologized for how much of a complete asshole he had been before. Quite frankly, Sage was somewhat relieved that Derek and Isaac moved in with her. She didn't like sleeping alone, not after everything with Matt and the Kanima.

"I think they're in the main bathroom," Derek replied.Sage nodded and turned to leave so she could spit out her toothpaste, only to be stopped when Derek cleared his throat. The alpha stood up, trying to decide if he should actually tell her what he found. He didn't want to alarm her, especially since there was a possibility it wasn't even the same pack, but she deserved to know. Choosing not to, Derek only gave a light smile her way. "Have fun."

"Derek Hale actually showing emotion?" Sage muffled out, raising her eyebrows at him. "Someone alert the media because that's a new one. Oh, Lydia and Allison are driving to school together so I'm just going drive myself. Text me and let me know if you find anything about the others."

Erica and Boyd have been missing for months now, and only a few weeks ago did Isaac go on a mission to find them. After what happened at the old warehouse in regard to her abilities and Isaac, she made sure the experiment to see if the same thing happened with Derek. Only it didn't happen with either werewolf. So either, (a) Isaac was feeling conflicted about where is loyalties were, or (b) her altor abilities were just feeling flexible that day and decided, why the hell not?

"Get to school, Sage," Derek ordered, trying to keep up with his role of the responsible parental guardian. Sage rolled her eyes and moved back to the bathroom where she spit out her toothpaste that had been burning her mouth and scrambled around until she found the shorts she bought over the summer. She let out a sigh in relief before snatching them up, walking back to her bedroom where she got ready to throw on her clothes for her first day back to school.

After last night, she was hesitant on going back. It was such an uneventful summer, and by uneventful, she meant there was no major issues with the supernatural. No one was out to kill them and they could all just relax. She worried now, though, that junior year was going to be more than just another few months in hell. The deer situation was only the first to come. Although she would rather handle a supernatural creature trying to kill her any day than face her relationship with Stiles. Even after last night, it was still awkward between them.

She missed him. She missed kissing him, and she missed hugging him. She missed coming over late at night, watching movies with him and the Sheriff. She just missed being a part of his life. Even though they weren't not a couple, they weren't together. They were distant, and they were reluctant on being the first person to apologize because they both were incredibly stubborn. She just missed her boyfriend.

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"Fresh men. Tons and tons of freshmen."

Sage stared at Lydia in disapproval, taking a small glance back to see the group of freshmen that Lydia had been previously inspecting. Allison had the same reaction as the blonde farthest to her did, feeling her lips turn up in a shocked expression as she looked at Lydia. "You mean fresh boys. Lydia, they're fourteen."

"Besides, they've probably never even seen boobs outside of their computer screen. You really want to be the girl they talk about to their best friends on Xbox?" Sage questioned, raising her eyebrows at Lydia. The teenage girl whined at her best friends' statements, dismissing their reasons with a wave to her hand. Allison cracked a smile, shaking her head as she finished unloading all of her binders from her locker. It was unbelievable how fast Lydia can bounce back. A new year, a new boy to prey on.

"You know, it's okay to be single. Focus on yourself for a little while.  Work on becoming a better person," Allison said, nodding to herself as she glanced in between her two friends who were staring at her with dumbfounded looks. "What?"

"You're doing the thing," Sage explained as she moved to open her own locker. "Lydia does it to me all the time. You know, when you act like you're trying to give Lydia and I advice but you're really trying to get yourself to believe it? Allison, we know you better than you know yourself."

Lydia clacked her tongue in agreement. "Besides, I don't even want a boyfriend. I want a distraction."

Coming down the hallway, Allison and Lydia watched as two pairs of boys made their way through, motorcycle helmets in their hands as they sent each other small smirks. Sage was completely oblivious as she shoved all of her shit into her locker to try and get rid of it as soon as possible. She only became aware that her friends were distracted by something when Allison broke the silence the two boys created.

"Brothers?" she questioned, raising her eyebrows as she watched them get closer.

Sage turned around just in time to see what they were staring at. The two boys both looked at her as soon as she turned around, their eyes filling with a pure thrill while Sage swore she began to see red. There was no doubt that they heard her heart fall flat to her stomach when she met their gaze, the excelled rate that it was beginning to pulse giving them the reaction that they cleared wanted by the smirks growing on their faces. The blonde could only clench her jaw, hand curling around her locker so tightly she thought that she was going to break it from the hinges.

With her lip curled back, she snapped out. "Twins. I have go to."

Slamming her locker, Sage disappeared down the hallway without giving her two friends an explanation. She jogged until she got around a corner, reaching out and grabbing two fistfuls of leather, tugging them into the closest janitor's closet. It was dark, the only light shining through the small window to the right of them. Her hands closed around one of their throats, and up until the light switched on did she realize it was Aiden that she was strangling.

"What the hell are you doing here? I told you to stay the hell away from this town!" she spat out, glaring at him with such hatred she thought he would burn right before her eyes. Ethan stood off to a corner, never speaking as he stared at the interaction between the former couple. He had been adamant against tempting the blonde but Aiden wanted to walk down the hallway where they knew she would be. Even after two years, they were still tempting each other and finding every way to piss each other off.

"You know I don't follow the rules, Sage," he breathed out, giving her a smirk as he grabbed her wrists, jerking her off his neck. He was rough enough to show that he was serious but not too much to hurt her. "I never have, and since when did you?"

"Go to hell," Sage growled, shoving away from him as she stepped a few feet away. She wasn't going to let him see her break, that would be too much of a victory for him. "Seriously, why are you here, Aiden? You've already ruined my life enough. Just leave."

"I can't do that," he disagreed, shaking his head. "Despite what you may think, I didn't come here for you. There's bigger things going on than us, Little Red. Just stay out of our way and we won't have to hurt you and your little pack of friends."

He stared at her, his eyes moving from her new hair color to how she was still the same height as she had been two years ago when they first met. Nothing about her had changed apart from her eyes. They were darker, more violent and enraged than they had been before. Although, his changed too. Instead of their violent blue color, they were now a crimson red. Both parties had changed a considerable amount, but Aiden was just wondering how long it would take for Sage to give in again.

"Nothing you haven't done before," Sage hissed before shoving past him, moving to get out of such a confined space. Before she could leave, there was a rough grab on her upper arm and she was jerked back into Aiden. He leaned in closer to her and she flinched, tilting her head away. "Let go of me."

"Aiden—" Ethan warned, noticing that his twin was walking on a thin line.

"Just watch your back, Connelly," Aiden muttered into her ear before letting go, moving past her with Ethan following after him. Sage stood there for a few seconds, her chest heaving as she swore her heart was about to leap out of her chest. He shouldn't be back. Neither of them should.

Running her hands through her hair, she huffed out before following after the two. She just wanted to get this day over with. Standing outside, across from the hall, were Stiles and Scott, both staring with wide eyes as they moved from the two dispersing figures to Sage, who's cheeks were red and hair was messy. Stiles stared at Sage in question, his eyes wide with confusion and absolute betrayal. She went to speak to him but he shook his head, walking away with a small goodbye to Scott.

He hadn't been back ten minutes and already, Aiden was ruining her life all over again.

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Here's the first chapter of Still! So, Stage is in a fight because Stiles was texting Heather and Aiden is now in Beacon Hills and back in Sage's life. Many of you were asking if this is still a Stiles fic, and yes, it is, but that doesn't mean there won't be other guys and girls getting in the way of that. Plus, Derek and Sage are back on good terms, aye. But I hope you guys liked it. Comment and tell me what you think of it so far!