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CHAPTER THREE;

MISERY BUSINESS

"Stiles, I'm going to murder you."

Stiles didn't bother looking up from his laptop, but nodded his head to signal that he heard his girlfriend. Sage was laying to the right of him, her eyes narrowing on the cellphone that fell down at the end of the boy's bed. She had been texting Lydia about their plans to dye her hair, and that had been completely interrupted when Stiles hit her in the stomach out of excitement when he ended up beating someone in his mythological game system.

"Stiles," Sage repeated, moving to look over at him to make sure his attention was actually on her. It wasn't, and she curled her lip in annoyance at him. She came over because he was complaining about the shortage of time he's spent with her this week, despite it all being his fault for wanting to have a bromance with Scott. "Stiles, I swear to god."

"What?" Stiles complained, looking away from his game. He saw that Sage was on her knees, as if she were contemplating whether or not she had the effort to bend down and grab her phone. Her blonde hair was thrown into a messy bun, and he would have called her adorable if it weren't for the killer look in her eyes.

She pointed towards the phone, and Stiles leaned up a bit see it. He bit down on his lips before looking over at her sheepishly. "Sorry, babe. You know I like this game."

"Uh hu," Sage agreed, rolling her eyes at him as she pushed herself off of his bed. "I thought you'd want to make out with me more than you'd want to battle mythological creatures. Did you not get enough of that last year?"

Stiles watched as she bent down to pick up her phone, and stood there for a few moments as she texted back her friend. Just as he thought she was going to come back on the bed with him, she glanced up and gave him a scowl before plopping down on the desktop chair that was halfway across the room from him.

That was when he realized she was actually annoyed with him, and he began to pout. "Sage, come here."

"No," Sage said, refusing to look up from her phone.

"Sage," Stiles repeated, dragging out her name a bit longer than necessary. When she didn't budge, he let out a huff before moving his laptop away and pulling himself off of the bed. As soon as he got to her, she began to protest and try to move away from him. "Come here, you little brat!"

"Stiles, no! Go kill dragons!" Sage retorted, struggling to get her boyfriend's hands off of her arms.

He didn't stop, instead he only pulled her harder to try and get her off of the chair. His tugging eventually led him to lose his balance, tipping himself back and Sage forward. Sage let out a strangled cry when she thought they were going to go crashing onto the floor, only for Stiles' back to hit hard with his bed.

Stiles groaned when Sage's body landed hard on his, but it mixed in with Sage's laughter as she stared down at him, her anger washing away. He smiled at her, and leaned up a bit, his lips connecting with hers. The atmosphere of the room went from playful to lust infested in seconds as Stiles' hands tangled in the blonde's hair. She grabbed the back of his neck, legs wrapped tightly around his waist as she pressed her body against his.

Stiles eventually grew tired of being on the bottom and flipped the girl over, the plaid shirt she was wearing rising up enough for his bare hands to connect with her skin, grabbing at in hungrily. She grinned into the kiss and opened her mouth even more, their movements sloppy the further they progressed. Stiles' used one of his arms to hold himself above her while the other quickly unbuttoned the shirt.

Sage took a large intake of air when the boy's lips moved to her neck, trailing down to her shoulders while leaving lingering sloppy kisses. To the right of her, she heard a phone buzz and let out a frustrated moan, ignoring it as she pulled Stiles back on her lips, grabbing the hem of his shirt to tug it over his head. With her in her bra and him completely shirtless, they were interrupted by another text tone ringing through the room.

After a few seconds, she grew annoyed and grabbed a hold of the phone, recognizing that it was Stiles' and not her own. What stopped her in her place was the amount of messages from a single person with the contact name of Heather. It wasn't that it was a girl he was talking to, it was the last message that had come from the receiving end of the phone.

From: Heather

See you there (;

Immediately, Sage pulled away from her boyfriend, shoving him off of her body as she moved to get out from under him. Stiles stared at her confused, and she only grabbed a hold of her shirt, moving to button it up as she felt her anger begin to pulsate through her.

"What's wrong?" Stiles asked, confused.

Sage stopped her trembling hands, half of her shirt buttoned. Glancing up at him, she motioned towards her phone. "You have a text from Heather. She says she'll see you there."

"Sage—" Stiles started, moving to grab a hold of her.

She recoiled immediately. "Don't touch me."

"Sage," Stiles repeated, keeping his distance as he held his hands up in surrender. "She's just a friend. I swear to god, she's just a friend. Our mom's knew each other when we were little. That's it, I swear."

Sage shook her head, feeling a lump form in her throat as she finished buttoning up her shirt, walking past him so that she could grab her converse and leave his house before she completely broke down in front of him. Stiles watched her, his hand running through his hair as he tried to figure out what in the hell he could say to convince her of the truth.

As she went to leave his bedroom, he reached out again and proceeded to stop her despite her protests against it before. She turned to look at him, and he noticed that there were tears brimming in her eyes as she made failed attempts to blink them away. When he said nothing, Sage raised her eyebrows, "Let go of me, Stiles."

"Not until you listen to me," Stiles protested.

Sage shook her head, jerking herself free from him as she rushed down the flight of stairs. Sheriff Stilinski wasn't home, called in for a late night, and quite frankly, Sage was happy that he wasn't here because she didn't need him getting involved in the fight. Stiles followed after her, though, and just as she was nearing her car, he made one last attempt.

"Do you not trust me?" he shouted from the door.

Sage turned look at him, the tears falling freely as she clenched her jaw. "I do, but just please, give me time. Just...I just need time to think."

Sage pursed her lips, staring at him for a few seconds before jerking open her car door, and falling into the seat. Without another look in the direction of the Stilinski household, she drove away.

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"Why am I coming?"

"Because you're our friend and we need your help getting through to Scott."

Sage stared over at Allison, who was occupying the driver's seat. She had been dragged into the car after the two girls — Lydia was currently tracing her wrist in the back — decided they wanted to go on a mission to figure out why some girl came up to them after invasion of the the Beacon Birds from hell and bruised their wrists. Granted, Sage acquired the same injuries, but whenever she put her wrists they looked odd because they were facing the opposite direction from another, while Allison and Lydia could just conjoin their wrists.

"You need me to get through to Scott?" Sage asked, emphasizing the words so that Allison realized just how idiotic the girl was sounding right now. "Allison, I don't know if you've noticed, but Scott and I aren't exactly going to be making bestie blood sacrifices right now."

"Oh, trust me, we've noticed," Lydia commented from the backseat, looking up from her red pen. Sage and Allison both glared back at her, and she huffed out. "What? It's true! Everyone wants to know what the hell happened to you in the hallway."

Sage pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly as she pursed her lips. "Nothing happened. The two new kids just got lost."

"In the supply closet?"

"Yes," Sage said, her hands clenching tightly into fists. "In the supply closet, Lydia."

Lydia went quiet in the backseat of the car, and Allison's face pulled into a frown as she glanced over at the tempered blonde. She was worried; Sage had never been this out of control before. She was spiralling, and Allison honestly didn't want to see what was going to happen when Sage found out where they were going to find Scott.

Sage let out a sigh, running her hands through her hair in an attempt to calm herself down. "I'm sorry. I'm just stressed." In an attempt to move the conversation off her bitchiness, she turned to look at Allison. "Where did you say we were going?"

Allison tensed up immediately, as did Lydia, who had previously texted Scott to ask where he even was. Neither one of the girls wanted to tell their best friend that Scott and her boyfriend happened to be at a birthday party of a girl who single-handedly ruined Stiles' and Sage's relationship. Technically, it wasn't ruined, just slowly falling apart, and they didn't want to be the ones to completely break that.

"We didn't," Lydia muttered, sharing a glance with Allison.

Sage's eyebrows raised in confusion. "What are you hiding from me?"

"Nothing!" Allison protested, just as they moved to pull into the neighborhood. Sage didn't recognize the place, and figured that they weren't going to be going to Scott's house like her original thought was.

"Tell me where we're going or I'm jumping out of your car, Allison."

Lydia bit down hard on her lip, trying to find the best way to tell Sage. "Scott's at a birthday party with Stiles."

"Is that it?" Sage asked, looking in between her two friends. She had a feeling that it wasn't, and she was just praying that it was an irrelevant person's birthday.

"It's Heather's party, Sage," Allison confessed just as they pulled up in front of the house they were given the directions to. She didn't fail to notice how tense Sage immediately got, her shoulders falling still as she stared ahead at the windshield.

Then, Sage was pulled at the locked door. "Let me out of the car."

"What?"

"Let me out," Sage repeated, turning to look at her friend.

Allison stared at her for a few seconds as if contemplating whether or not to actually let a pissed off girlfriend into the girl's house, but then realized that if she were in the same situation, she would have already broken out of the car. For the very reason of knowing what it felt like, Allison unlocked the car door and watched as Sage went running towards the house.

The first thing she saw when she opened the front door was Scott, who had been blocking her view up until she shoved past him and saw that Stiles was kissing a blonde. A blonde who looked relatively similar to her. Sage went to walk forward to pull the boy away and confront him but she wasn't given a chance. Not a second after their lips connected, he was shoving the girl away, rather aggressively and hostile.

Having not realized Sage was behind him, he stared at Heather in shock. "I have a girlfriend."

"And you just kissed him right in front of her," Sage remarked, stepping around Scott who had been standing there looking like a deer caught in headlights.

Both Stiles and Heather whipped their heads her way, replicating the same horrified expression. Sage didn't know why Stiles looked that way, he hadn't been the one to make out with her. As far as she was concerned, Heather deserved to look how she did. The other blonde's mouth began to jumble strings of apologizes all while Sage stared at her, waiting for her to shut up.

"Oh, my god. I didn't know!" Heather protested.

Sage crossed her arms over her chest. "Clearly."

"I'm just going to go," Heather muttered, before her friend started to drag her away from the scene.

Sage watched as she left, feeling an unexplainable amount of anger towards the girl for what she did, and clenched her jaw tightly before directing her eyes over to Stiles, who watched with calculating eyes as if he were waiting for her to blow up. Sage didn't say anything to him, instead she turned towards Scott. "Allison's outside. She needs to talk to you about something important."

"Oh," Scott said, his eyes moving in between the couple. He figured he would rather take his chances with his ex than be in a room with these two. He was honestly questioning if they were going to scream at each other or jump on each other. "Yeah, alright."

As soon as Scott disappeared out the front door, Stiles stood directly before her. He had grown taller, and she realized that was something she hated about him. It was hard for her to look intimidating when she was so much smaller than the boy. He only glanced down at her, and she wasn't exactly sure who was going to speak first.

"Are you still...?" Stiles asked, his voice trailing off as he questioned her. She didn't need him to finish the final words because she already knew what he was asking.

With a small small, Sage leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. It was softer than the others, less aggressive and more compassionate. Stiles grabbed a hold of her face, her blonde hair getting caught in his fingers as he kissed her back. She stepped forward a bit, never once letting their lips break from each other, so that she was pressed tightly against her boyfriend. It was only when they realized they did not have superhuman abilities to hold their breaths that they pulled away.

Stiles' thumb rested on the bottom of Sage's lip, gently pulling it back. He cracked a grin and shook his head. "I love you, you adorable, little psychopath."

"It's in my natural to be lovable," Sage retorted, grinning from ear to ear as she pressed another kiss to Stiles' lips.

She was trying her hardest to ignore the gut-wrenching feeling in her stomach that was telling her this wasn't right, not with Aiden in town. She didn't need to get Stiles wrapped into that part of her past. As far as she was concerned, Sage had normal, human boyfriends before she came to Beacon Hills.

For right now, all she could do was pretend that Ethan and Aiden weren't back, that Erica and Boyd weren't still missing, and that something inside of her was crawling around and threatening to break free without anyone even realizing it.

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It was the following day at school that everything went to shit.

Their life had already been infiltrated with werewolves, Kanimas, and demon birds, but to add onto that list, there was the ever-growing concern that whatever the hell was branded onto Lydia and Allison's wrist wasn't just some random marking, but something that could eventually fit into a pattern. Naturally, Sage was on board with the whole idea for the very reason that the last time she doubted anyone, they ended up trying to kill her and her friends.

Not to call out Matt Daehler, but it was completely accurate at this point.

The one person that didn't believe the whole idea of the bruises leading to the disappearance of Boyd and Erica was Derek. He stood in front of the group of teenagers, arms crossed tightly to pull off a more intimidating stance while everyone else seemed to crowd around him. Sage was standing off to the side next to Stiles, of whom she has yet to fully speak to since last night, while Lydia and Allison held their wrists in Derek's line of sight to show the significance in their bruises.

The room was tense, from Allison and Scott who were trying to work out their differences for a common good, while everyone still seemed on the fence about what Stiles and Sage were. They noticed the change in behavior from both of them, but they were still distant from each other, and that itself was enough to stir a bit of uncomfort. Not to mention the fact that Sage has yet to speak to Derek about the issue concerning a certain pair of twins. He knew that she knew just by the way she narrowed her eyes when he walked into the room.

Trying to focus his attention on a more important topic, Derek glanced down at the two girls' wrists. "I don't see anything."

"Look again," Scott begged, trying to get Derek to help him out.

There wasn't much that they could go off of, they were still trying to bottle up enough information about werewolves as it is. They didn't need more things being added onto their list of things to know and learn.

"How is a bruise going to tell me where Boyd and Erica are?" Derek asked, his voice rising slightly to let the group know that he wasn't playing around when it came to the two betas. Sage already knew that he thought of them as his family; they were his pack, it was his job to protect them and he feels as though he's failed that duty.

She leaned forward. "It's the same on both sides, Derek. Exactly the same."

"It's nothing."

Lydia pursed her lips, her eyes diverting from her wrist to Derek. "Pareidolia. Seeing patterns that aren't there." When no one spoke up, obviously not on the same IQ level as Lydia, she sighed. "It's a subset of apophenia."

"How do you..." Sage trailed over, shaking her head. "Never mind. I don't want to know."

Scott looked back towards Derek, frowning so deep his dimples began to show. "They're trying to help."

"These two? This one, who used to me to resurrect my psychotic uncle, thank you," Derek quipped, sarcasm lacing through every word as he directed his words to Lydia before moving along to Allison. "And this one, who shot about thirty arrows into me and my pack."

Sage stood silently beside Stiles, feeling uncomfortable that Derek brought up the memories of those two nights. When Lydia had brought Peter back, she had undoubtedly poisoned the whole student body into a frenzy that involved lots and lots of unwanted memories.

Then, Allison had gone rogue and went on a psychotic rage after her mother died, putting Sage in the crossfire of the whole problem. She didn't blame the brunette girl, but that didn't change what she did. Even now, four months later, Sage still finds it difficult to look at Allison the same way.

She didn't miss the glances that the former hunter gave her, though. Hell, she noticed all of the looks her friends have been giving her lately. She would admit that she was more temperamental lately, but she wasn't going to crack. She was just aggravated, it was like something was constantly nagging her and she didn't know what. Pretending to be normal seemed to be the only solution to get Allison and the others off her back.

"Whoa, whoa, okay," Stiles interrupted the small stare-down coming from the hunter and the hunted, trying to relieve the tension from Allison and Derek. "No one died. Look, there may have been a little maiming, some mangling — but no death! That's what I call an important distinction."

Allison's face contorted in pain. "My mother died."

"Your family's little honor code killed your mother," Derek deadpanned, knowing fairly well what Victoria did to Scott and Sage that night in the club. "Not me."

Sage didn't exactly feel like going through memory lane anymore, in the span of the last five minutes she's already been reminded of her worst moments in time. Granted, she had thousands more, but the night that Allison's mother tried to kill Scott, and she was forced to endure that with her friend, was one of the hardest things she has ever done. It was out of the fear that she would lose someone she loved directly before her eyes.

"That girl's looking for Scott. I'm here to help him, not you," Allison spit back, raising an eyebrow as she controlled her anger better than any werewolf or temperamental human — Sage — could.

"You want to help? Find something real."

Just as he turned to leave, Scott jogged after him to try and get the alpha to stop. "Give her a chance, okay? They're on our side."

"Well, then maybe you should tell her about what her mother was actually trying to do that night," Derek spoke, his voice carrying out loud enough for Stiles and Sage to hear, but too distant for the other two humans in the room.

Sage's jaw clenched tightly, and she stared after the man. She had to speak to him, and now was better than later. He was keeping things from her, even after they made a vow never to lie or keep secrets from each other after last year. Their relationship had been brutally corrupted based on the untold reasons involving Peter, Laura, the Alpha, and everything after that. Sage needed to know if he was ever going to tell her about the twins being back in town.

"Tell Coach I got sick," Sage muttered to Stiles, pressing a kiss to his cheek before moving past Scott.

The boy gave her a glance as if he were questioning where her true intentions lay in this never-ending feud between Derek and what was right. She didn't need him knowing that she wasn't sure where her intentions were in anything anymore. She just had to speak to the one person that actually knows the whole truth, the one person that she can actually talk to without feeling a sense of guilt building up in the pit of her stomach.

Just as she crashed out the doors and into the hallway, Derek turned around. He knew. He knew that she would eventually find him, he didn't need to be a genius to figure that out. He had things to tell her too, all involving the twins and their ring leader. Of course, he had to fill her in on what he found out about Erica and Boyd, more so what Peter found.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you stressed on your first day," Derek said, glancing over at the clock on the wall that signaled second period would be coming to an end soon and the hall was soon going to be infested with teenagers.

Sage didn't seem to notice in the slightest as she stared at Derek with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "You didn't want to stress me? Did you think me finding out as they walked down the hallway was a better option? How about when they dragged me into the closet and threatened to kill me if I got in their way?"

"Come on," Derek ushered, grabbing her upper arm as he dragged out out of the hall, eyes flashing to the left and right to assure that no one was prying into their conversation. When they were outside, and away from the public eye, he whipped his head around to stare down at her. "I promised that I would keep you safe, and if that means keeping you out of the loop around them, then I'm going to do it."

Sage watched him, her eyes blinking rapidly as she looked at his face to see any evidence of a lie, but she knew she wasn't going to see one. He was right; when they got back to Beacon Hills, he promised that he would get her away from that life, the one she had before. Aiden and Ethan just so happened to be an extreme part of who she used to be. Nothing was going to change that.

"Why are they back?" Sage breathed out, her voice softer than it had been earlier.

Derek frowned deeply. "Deucalion has Erica and Boyd. Isaac ended up finding them before his memories were taken away. Peter managed to retrieve them. They said that we had until the next full moon."

"Derek," Sage started, a lump forming in her throat at the mention of Deucalion's name. "You do know when the full moon is, right? That's not going to change. I mean, he's going to... they are going to kill them."

Sage didn't want to admit to herself that the twins were involved. Two years ago, they left her for the man that they now stood beside, leaving behind bloodshed and nothing but memories that will haunt her for the rest of her life. She wasn't questioning how brutal the two boys could be, especially when they morphed together. She didn't know how many more were in the pack of them, but she knew that the twins weren't alone. They weren't alone before, and they definitely won't be alone now.

"We have a plan for that," Derek admitted, nodding his head. "I'm not letting anyone else die."

Sage hesitated at his words. "You can't play god, Derek."

"Are you saying you're not even going to try and help us save them?" Derek asked, his temper getting the best of him as his voice raised slightly higher than usual. He loved Sage, he did, but his pack had his devotion as well. He wasn't going to abandon them just because Sage believes there is no point.

"No. I'm saying I don't think this fight is going to end without casualties."

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partial editing, but im lazy so.

im sorry. this chapter sucked. literally, ive been struggling to write lately because school has been fucking with my life, as usual. this story is going to be updated as much as you guys might like, mostly because although i'd love to finish Still, i'd also love to graduate high school. plus i have three more stories to write, one of which i have no shitting idea what to do. yay.

anyways, i know most of you were concerned about stage and how aiden will interfere with them. i just wanted to let you know that stage is back together, i don't think ill be pulling anymore gutwretching scenes for right now, but you need to be fairly aware that yes this is a stiles fanfic but no it isnt going to be all about stiles. i need you guys to give aiden a little bit of love because he wont be getting together with sage any time soon. she can barely stand to see him, much less trust him and love him again.

but yAy stage are bACk. plus, give prayers to ashton and his recovery. he had to go into opporation today after they found out he had appendicitis. yes, i did have a heart attack while reading the tweet during fifth period. and no, i didn't give a shit if my phone got taken away because i was too busy freaking out. okay. that's cleared up.

get amanda to 2k btw. yall will be the bc bff deserves it.