Wow, look at me go, keeping up with the week to week thing

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"You've been uncharacteristically quiet," Stiles said softly as we laid on my bed, his arm around me and his fingers running through my hair.

I turned the next page of my textbook and began to read, "Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?"

His hand stopped for a moment, before continuing to softly run down my hair, ever so gently touching my neck. "Touché. But I still want to talk, you know, about Deucalion and what he said to you."

I stopped reading, freezing in the moment, before slowly lowering the book down onto my chest. "We don't need to discuss that, because there is no way I would ever help him."

"Your mum did," he reminded me quietly.

Putting the text book down completely, I sat up so that I could look at him. He looked like he was already regretting what he said as he dropped his hands on his torso.
"You're right."

Stiles' demeanour immediately evolved from cringing regret, to shocked surprise. "I'm right?"

"Don't make me repeat myself, Stilinski," I warned with a small laugh. "Look, I understand that my mum did, but that was her decision. I always looked up to her, so I can only hope that she had no choice but to help him. But whether she was forced to or not, all I know is that I'm not going to follow in those certain footsteps. I'm not going to help them kill people. But I'm just scared of what might happen if I say no."

Stiles grabbed onto my hands, pulling me back towards him and into his lap. "You know I'll protect you, right? And so will Scott. We wouldn't let anything happen to you."

"I think Scott has a few more pressing issues," I sighed. "And that's another thing; I don't want you to protect me, Stiles. It's you that I'm worried about. If I tell him no, I'm afraid something might happen to you or Charlotte or someone else that I care about."

"And you think I'm about to stand by and let them hurt you?" He asked, although the answer was kind of already implied.

Placing a hand on his cheek, I tried my best for a genuine smile, "You're sweet."
He knew I wasn't going to listen to him, so I didn't have to say that out loud. Sliding off of his lap, I picked my text book back up and found the page I had previously been reading.

I didn't have to glance over to know that Stiles was looking at me. He worried too much. I just wished I could ease his mind, but I couldn't come up with the words.

A buzz from Stiles' phone derailed my train of thought, focusing back on my studying. Stiles unwrapped himself from me to reach over and grab his phone, reading the notification that he had received.
"We've got to go. Right now," Stiles announced, climbing off of my bed and pulling on his jacket.

I dropped my book again. "What? Why? What's happening?"

"Lydia. She's had another one of her find-a-dead-body feelings and she's at the school. Let's go."
Grabbing his keys, he rushed out the door.

"Dammit," I mumbled beneath my breath. Dumping the book on my bed, I grabbed a jacket and my shoes in my hands and followed him out the door. "Stiles, slow down a second! I'm running bare foot here!"

"Where are you two going?" A voice called as we were about to leave the house.

I immediately stopped, turning towards the voice. "Charlotte. I didn't realise you were home yet."

She crossed her arms in front of her, leaning against the wall. "Finished work about an hour ago. Where are you off to?"

"Out for dinner with Scott, Allison and Lydia," I replied, quick on my feet.

Charlotte squinted, "I didn't think Scott and Allison would want to be in the same room for that long after how you told me things ended."

"Friend therapy? I don't know?" I shrugged. "They sit on opposite ends of the table anyway."

"Alright," she sighed. "Just don't be home too late. And make sure you don't forget you're appointment with the school counsellor like you did last week."

Shit. I did have an appointment with Morell tomorrow. And I had avoided her last week. I had been having appointments with her ever since everything with my mum and Matt. But after we found out she worked for the Alpha pack, I wasn't too keen on seeing her.
"Sure. Will do."  

♡♢♤♧

We arrived at the school at at the same time as Scott, throwing open the doors of the Jeep as we ran over to Lydia and Allison who were waiting out the front of the school for us. Lydia looked paler than usual, her eyes flickering.

The three if us ran over to the two girls, Lydia trying to breath steadily, "It's the same thing. Same thing as the pool. I got into the car heading somewhere totally different, and ended up here. And you told me to call you if there's a dead body."

"You found a dead body?" Stiles asked, dumbfounded.

"Not yet."

"'Not yet'?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

Stiles nodded, "Yeah, Lydia, you're supposed to call us after you find the dead body."

Lydia began shaking her head and finger at the same time, "Oh no, I'm not doing that again. You find the dead body from now on."

"How are we supposed to find the dead body?"

I shrugged, "We managed to find one in the forest just last year. How hard could it be to find one in the school?"

"But Lydia is the one who finds the dead bodies now," he complained.

"Guys," Scott interrupted. "I found the dead body."

This made us all fall silent. Glancing in his direction, I followed his line of sight over to the sign on the school's front lawn which read 'Beacon Hills High School'. It itself didn't look too different, except for that fact that tonight it had a dead body draped over it.

I felt my legs moving before my mind could compute, running towards the body. I stopped short when I realised who it was. Tara, one of Sheriff Stilinski's deputies.

When I heard the others beginning to approach, I turned around quickly, "Stiles, stay back. Please."

His eyebrows creased as he looked at my worried face, "Why? Riley, who is it?"
Tara wasn't just any random deputy. Out of all of them, she was the one who Stiles was closest with. Whenever he was alone at the station when he was younger, waiting for his dad to finish whatever he was doing, she would help him with homework or just keep him company.

I ran up to him and stood in his way, placing my hands on his shoulders. "Stiles. You don't need to see this."

His eyes were flickering as they searched my face, but then they were looking past me, desperately trying to figure out who lay on the sign.

When he went to step forward, I tried to keep him back, but he just quickly stepped around me. "Stiles-"
When he stopped walking, I knew I was too late.

Slowly making my way up to him, I wrapped my arms around him. I didn't know what else I could do.

"I'm going to call the Sheriff," I heard Scott say from behind me. Allison and Lydia weren't saying anything, but I knew they were still there.

Stiles spun in my arms so that he could face me. He looked so torn. He had already lost Heather, and now Tara.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered.

He took a deep breath, but it sounded so shaky. I went on my tiptoes to embrace him again, squeezing tightly. I could feel his breath on my skin as he buried his face in the crook of my neck.

"Come on, your dad can handle this. Let's go," I said softly as I began to pull away. He didn't move, just stood there.

I went over to Scott who had just hung up his phone. "Sheriff Stilinski on his way?"

Scott nodded, "Yeah, but what if he starts asking how we found the body?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," I sighed. "I'm gonna take Stiles home. Make sure Allison and Lydia get home, would you?"

He agreed, giving me a quick hug good bye, before going over to talk to my two friends. I turned back to Stiles, to see he was staring at Tara's body once more.

Making my way back over to him, I grabbed his hand and started to guide him back to the car park. When we reached the Jeep Stiles grabbed his keys out of his pocket, only for me to snatch them away. "Riley-"

"I'm driving, no arguments."

"But. . . Roscoe. . ."

"Seriously, Stiles?" I scoffed. "Come on, get in the car."

He almost looked like he was about to debate me further, but eventually just bowed his head and walked around to the passenger side of the car. We both climbed in, shutting the doors behind us.

I put the keys in and attempted to start the engine. After about three goes and Stiles trying to backseat-drive, I managed to get it going.

Driving us straight back to his house, we sat in silence. Stiles still seemed to be trying to compute what had just happened. It was like when I had seen my mother dead; everything just goes into slow motion.

When we arrived at his house, we walked in and went straight to his room. Stiles took off his shoes and sat down on his bed.

"I'm so sorry, Stiles," I said again, hoping it was enough. I didn't really know what to say. He smiled sadly at me.

Knowing that there was nothing I could say, I decided the best thing I could do was be there for him. So, after googling which was next, I grabbed the next Star Wars movie from his shelf, along with his laptop and went and sat on his bed with him.

Putting the disc into the laptop, I loaded up the movie. I then dragged Stiles back to the headboard of his bed, getting him to sit with me.

When the movie started playing and the words started moving up the screen, he gave my hand a small squeeze, "Thank you."

♡♢♤♧

Stiles had fallen asleep about half way through the movie. As I sat up straight against his bed's headboard, his head lay in my lap. I was mindlessly combing my fingers through his hair gently as I watched the movie

When I heard the front door of the house slam shut, my heart rate rose. All I could imagine was Deucalion coming up and slitting both of our throats.

Focusing, I listened to what was going on downstairs. I heard car keys clink into a ceramic bowl, followed by a man's tired sigh. Stiles' dad was home.

He arrived at the bedroom door minutes later, not turning on the light as he noticed that his son was asleep.

"Sorry, Mr Stilinski," I whispered so I didn't wake Stiles up as I slowly began to try and get out from beneath him. "I'll go."

"No," he replied quickly. I stopped moving, glancing up at him.
"I was worried he wasn't going to get any sleep after hearing about Tara. If you could stay with him, I'd appreciate it."

I felt myself smile at his words. I knew that Mr Stilinski had already accepted me as one of Stiles' best friend, but I had yet to know how he felt about us being together.
The fact that he was the one asking me to stay, and that he trusted me meant a lot.

"Of course," I smiled.

"Thank you, Riley. I'll let your sister know since it's a school night," He nodded with a small smile, before walking down the hallway to his bedroom.

I was thankful that he offered to talk to Charlotte, since she would probably just see it as me wanting to stay at my boyfriend's house. Coming from the Sheriff, she'd know it was the truth.

Turning off Stiles' laptop and moving it so it wouldn't fall off the bed, I wriggled down so that I was laying beside him.

Sure, I had had sleepovers with Scott and Stiles before, but this was different. I noticed every freckle and mole on his pale skin, the shape of his face, the curve of his lips, how he looked so peaceful; things I never saw when we were just friends.

Running my fingers lightly down the side of his face, I knew what I had told him in that motel room was true. I loved this boy with my whole heart, and I don't know what I would ever do without him.

♡♢♤♧

The sun filtered in through the blinds in Stiles' room that next morning, waking me up. Opening my eyes, I smiled as I saw Stiles across from me.

His eyes were still closed, lips parted slightly as he breathed softly. He looked peaceful, and I didn't want to be the one to ruin that.

Each morning I woke up, and there was one split second where I forgot what happened to my mum. The moment got somewhat shorter each morning, but it was still there.

Stiles had already been through that with both his mum and Heather. He didn't deserve to have to do it again.

His eyes opened slowly, smiling when they met mine, "Hey."

"Good morning," I replied softly.

At this, he looked a bit confused, "'Morning'?"
He looked around properly to confirm what I had said. "Wait. . . my dad actually let you stay the night? My dad?"

Laughing lightly, I nodded, "Yeah. He didn't want to accidentally wake you up, so he let me stay."

Lifting a hand, he ran his hand down the side of my face, tucking some hair behind my ear, "I'm happy he did."
His hand rested on my cheek, his thumb stroking my skin gently.

I placed my hand on his, "Even though I would love nothing more than to lay here with you all day, we have school. Can we stop by my place on the way so I can grab a change of clothes."

"Yeah, of course."

I got up and headed over to the door. When I stopped to grab my shoes, I noticed that Stiles had climbed out of his bed and removed the flannel he had been wearing over his shirt.

I found myself standing near the door, silently watching. Now, this might've sounded weird, but he was my boyfriend now, so. . . yeah.

Just as he reached for his shirt, his face went red and he made eye contact with me in his mirror.
"Sorry. I, uh, thought you'd left."

Biting my lip, I shook my head. "Glad I didn't now."

He laughed nervously, his hand running through his hair.

"I'll see you down stairs," I chuckled, turning on my heel and walking out the door.

♡♢♤♧

After Stiles had gotten dressed and we had had something to eat we left his house. He made a pitstop at my house, just like we said we would, and I ran in and quickly got changed into some fresh clothes.

We then went straight to school, planning on meeting up with Scott.
As we walked through the school hand-in-hand, Stiles spotted his dad nearby talking to a teacher and a man with a gun on his hip, but he wasn't a deputy. 

Pulling me over behind a pillar, he gestured to them, "Can you hear what they're saying?"

Focusing on my breathing and on the three men, I listened. "They're just talking about Tara. Trying to figure out why she was chosen. Why leave her body at the school. It sounds like we're at the end of their conversation though."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because your dad is headed over here," I told him, pointing over to the Sheriff.

"Shit," Stiles mumbled, grabbing my hand and holding his bag up behind us as he tried to take us away from him.

But his dad wasn't dumb, "Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Back it up."

Stiles frowned, lowering the bag and letting go of my hand as he turned to face his father.

"I know what you're thinking," the Sheriff began. "I know you've got all these ideas about patterns and people dying in threes-"

"Dad, murdered, okay? Sacrificed, actually," Stiles corrected.

"I've got half the state, including the FBI, coming in on this. They're not getting away with killing one of our own."

Stiles' expression saddened as he looked at his father. "Dad, they killed Tara. You know, how many times did she help me with my maths homework when I had to wait at the station for you?"

"Just, uh, get to class, okay?"
After Stiles and I turned to walk away, Mr Stilinski called my name. I looked at Stiles for a moment, confused, before walked back over.
"I know this goes without saying, but look out for him for me. You're good for him."

"He's good for me," I admitted as I glanced at the boy over my shoulder. "He just wants to help."

"I know that," the Sheriff sighed. "It doesn't mean he should, though. You're just kids."

"We know that too, don't worry."

The Sheriff thanked me once more, before rejoining the two men he had been speaking to earlier. When I approached Stiles, his eyes widened in question.

"We were just bonding over how we both noticed that you snore obnoxiously loud when you sleep."

"Ha ha," he replied humorlessly. "What did he really say."

I half-shrugged, "He was just being a parent. He's worried about you. Come on, let's get to class."

♡♢♤♧

"Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes, all tools the writer uses to tell their story," Miss Blake told us as she walked around the classroom.
She stopped at Lydia, looking down at the girl's book.
"Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many hidden talents."

"You and every guy I've ever dated," the girl smirked as she looked up from her drawing of a tree.

This took Miss Blake by surprise, her expression showing discomfort. I looked over to Lydia from the desk beside her, shaking my head at the girl as I held back a laugh. Only she would be so blunt about something like that.

"Oh, um, well, that was an idiom, by the way," Miss Blake replied when she finally found the words. She then continued to walk to the front of the class room as she spoke.
"Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture."

She stopped walking again, and I noticed her look down at Scott and Stiles.
After everything that happened with Boyd - and the fact that she had been in the room - we had all figured that Derek had let our teacher in on Beacon Hills' supernatural secret.

"They're phrases that only make sense if you know the key words," she resumed. "Saying 'jump the gun' is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race, or a phrase like 'seeing the whole board'."

"Like chess," Stiles completed the train of thought quietly.

"That's right, Stiles. Do you play?"

He glanced up at her, "Uh, no. My father does."

Miss Blake smiled happily, before moving along, "Now, when does an idiom become a cliche?"

"I think I can get to Ethan," Scott stated out of no where. "I'm pretty sure I can make him talk."

Stiles made sure Miss Blake wasn't looking before replying. "What do you want to do that for?"

"The Druids are emissaries, right? So what if the Darach was an emissary to the Alphas?"

I leaned forward so only the boys could hear me, "I think Scott might be onto something here."

Stiles held his hand up a little, "Firstly, I cannot believe that we've gotten to the point where a sentence like 'what if the Darach was an emissary to the Alphas?' actually makes sense to me. Second of all, Riley, we never agree with Scott, because his plans usually suck. Thirdly, we're gonna have a huge problem getting to Ethan."

"What's that?" Scott asked.

"Ooh, and this is where Stiles has a point. See? You both have your moments," I told Stiles.

Stiles rolled his eyes with a smile. "Going through Aiden. They've been connected at the hip ever since they got back."

"And this part, right here, is where I have my moment," I grinned. "I know how we can get to Ethan."

When both the boys looked at me, my eyes just drifted over to Lydia.
When she noticed that we were all staring at her, she pursed her lips, "What now?"