"A couple of students said they saw it running across the field and back into the woods," Sheriff Stilinski explained as he, Stiles and Harper walked down the school hall later that afternoon, "thank god nobody got hurt."

The coyote, Malia, had apparently broken into the school and chased Kira all the way to the boys locker rooms after Stiles and Harper had left. Fortunately for the Yukimura girl, Scott had been hanging around and heard her panicked breathing. He saved her and scared Malia off. Now police littered the hallways as teachers told teenagers to go home or call their parents.

Harper frowned, "what if Malia does hurt someone?"

Noah sighed, "most likely they'll have to put it down, Harper."

"Put her down!" Stiles cried, "dad, try not to forget there's a girl in there. The one that you'll be killing. Come on, you aren't back to not believing, are you?"

Stiles' dad paused in his tracks and turned to look at his son, lowering his voice as he said, "I believe there are a lot of things I don't understand yet. But that doesn't mean that everything and anything imaginable is suddenly possible. Now, are you one hundred percent sure that this is a girl and not an animal?"

Harper nodded for him, "yes. We're sure, because Scott's sure."

Stiles glanced down the empty hallway where their best friend now stood, staring across at them. He asked quietly if he had been listening, to which Scott nodded his head at.

"All right, let's get this figured out. Come on," Noah placed his hand on Stiles' shoulder and Harper's back as he escorted them down the hall.

...

Harper sat beside Scott on one of the benches in the changing rooms as he listened to whatever Kira was saying to her dad, Mr Yukimura. He seemed to have taken a liking to the new girl, but Harper hadn't asked him about it yet. Right now they had more important issues, anyway.

Police were walking around and hovering in the doorway when Stiles rushed over to the pair of teenagers, holding his backpack in his hands. It turned out Kira had been on her way delivering the three of them their bags when she was chased.

"I think I know what she was looking for," Stiles began as he pulled out the same baby doll from last night.

Scott's jaw clenched slightly as he deadpanned, "you took the doll from the car."

"Yeah, I thought you could use it, you know. For, like, her scent," Stiles shrugged in a hushed tone.

"Where did you get that?" The familiar deep voice of Mr Tate cut them off, "where did you find this?"

His face contorted into one of anger as he harshly snatched the doll from Stiles' hands. Harper watched nervously, half expecting the tired man to start screaming at them. He just stared down at it, his sunken eyes unblinking.

"It belonged to my daughter," he muttered quietly.

Sheriff Stilinski moved over to them, "Mr Tate, I don't know how you heard about this, if you got your own police scanner or what, but you can't be here."

Noah gently went to push the man out of the room, only for a look of confusion to cross his face as he touched Mr Tate. Peeling back the thick jacket he had on, he raised his eyebrows at the sight of a gun tucked in his waitband. Instinctively, Harper took a step backwards, her back pressing against Stiles.

One of his large hands placed on her shoulder, knowing how she hated simply the sight of a gun. After what happened to her mum and getting shot while being held hostage, nobody blamed her for it either.

"I have a permit," Mr Tate promised.

"California schools are gun free zones, permit or no permit," Noah reminded him with an unforgiving tone, "you need to leave now, Mr Tate. Now."

"Wait-" Malia's dad made a fuss as he was pushed out of the door, "st- no, wait. Wait. You find that animal. You find that thing!" He seethed before marching away.

Scott, Stiles and Harper all exchanged worried glances.

...

Isaac and Scott were with Stiles at the animal clinic, trying to figure out a way to turn Malia back human, leaving Harper home alone with Harry. The older boy was sat on the couch when she walked inside, watching something on the TV.

"Hey," he greeted as he heard the door close.

"Hi," Harper gave him a small smile, "it's just me and you for a bit while Scott and Isaac find out how to turn Malia back."

"The werecoyote?"

"That's the one," Harper flopped onto the couch beside him, "what have you done today?"

"Not much, to be honest. I've been looking for a new place to stay, though," Harry nervously admitted.

Harper frowned, "wait, what? Don't you like staying here? Melissa loves you."

"Of course I like being here, but this place is not my home, Harper," her older brother sighed, reaching out and holding her hand, "you have to try and understand. My home is London, where I grew up before this mess."

The small brunette forced herself to nod, although disappointment ached in her chest like a lodged bullet. She felt defeated. Of course she couldn't hold him back, but she had only just found him and he was the only blood relative she had left.

"I understand," she whispered.

"But..." he swallowed, scratching the back of his neck anxiously as he let go of her hand, "Harper, I want you to come with me."

"Oh."

Nothing else seemed capable of leaving Harper's lips as she stared at him in shock, blinking slowly. She expected him to say that he was joking, but since she had known the boy he had never once cracked a joke.

"Say something, please," he pleaded, "I know you have your friends here, but you could always visit them. You must miss home sometimes, right?"

Harper shook her head, "England's not my home, Harry. Beacon Hills is. Wherever Stiles, Scott, Allison and Lydia are. That's my home. I can't leave them, I'm sorry."

Harry just smiled sadly, shaking his head, "I kind of expected you to say that," he admitted, "I'm sorry we aren't going to be the great family we thought we were going to be."

"Nothing ever turns out the way you expect it," Harper muttered, "I'm glad I met you, though."

"Me too," Harry agreed, "and I will forever be grateful to you, Harper. In fact, I want to do something for you in return."

"Like what?" Harper raised her brows.

Harry grinned, "I'm gonna teach you everything I know about being an Empath."

...

"Control is key," the dark haired boy reminded his younger sister as she sat on the edge of her bed, "if someone gets injured, do you know how to not connect to them?"

Harper shook her head, "it happens randomly. Sometimes I connect, sometimes I don't. If I focus really, really hard I don't connect, but I'm talking eyes-scrunched-muttering-under-your-breath focus."

Harry hummed in response before he began to dig his nails into his palm harshly. The other Empath felt the discomfort and then the stinging, her brows furrowed together.

"Don't do that, you're hurting yourself," Harper scolded, ignoring the pain.

"Switch yourself off, Harper. Then I'll stop," Harry instructed, digging harder.

Wincing, Harper closed her eyes and began to concentrate hard on disconnecting. In only a few seconds she felt no pain, as if it had never been there in the first place.

"Stop," Harper placed her hand on his wrist and tugged it away, "I've disconnected."

Harry smiled slightly, "good," he stretched his hand out, dismissing the slight burning sensation, "now, do you wanna know how to stay disconnected?"

The petite brunette nodded eagerly, "please."

"It's in the ring," he admitted, sliding off the piece of metal that had been on his finger since the day the two first met, "as long as you wear this, any pain others feel will feel be like almost nothing to you."

Harper examined the jewellery that had a 'VERUM' written on it. She twirled it around her finger, furrowed brows.

"What about you?" Harper asked, "what if you need this?"

Harry chuckled, "I can't remember the last time I saw someone get hurt, plus I can shut off my connectivity better than you. You seem to be surrounded by danger on the daily."

"Can't argue with that," she shrugged, slipping the ring on her dainty fingers.

It was a little loose, but it would have to do. She was still thankful for it, anyway.

"What else can you teach me?" Harper questioned eagerly, "is there anything cool Empaths can do?"

Harry pursed his lips, "the only cool thing about Empaths is that there are only two left. Well, everyone thinks there's only one, but you know..."

"What about the mist thing? That still confuses me a little. Like, you said that it takes you to the person you need to see, right? Well, the other night it lead me to a place, not a person," Harper explained, recalling the coyote den she had discovered.

"The colour you see in the mist can sometimes represent the emotion of whatever you are following. Black for evil, purple for scared, and so on. Mist only appears when your conscience needs it to, or if you think about it really hard. It's basically a supernatural path that only you can see that leads you to where you desire," Harry told her, "it can be helpful."

Harper allowed his words to sink in for a few seconds as she sat back, her gaze on the bottom of her wall.

"We can learn some more another day, if you'd like," Harry suggested upon noticing how overwhelmed the youngest sibling looked.

"Yeah, that would be ideal. Thanks, Harry."

"No worries, Harper."

...

Stiles' jeep pulled up on the edge of the preserve alongside Scott's motorcycle and Allison's car. Harper and Stiles climbed out and met Allison, Isaac and Scott in the middle. All five teenagers shared worried looks, having gone over the plan for today last night via text message. They needed it to work, or Malia was literally going to be dead meat.

Nobody said anything for a few seconds until Isaac spoke up, "anybody else think we might be doing more harm than good?"

"We're trying to keep a father from killing his daughter," Scott reminded the curly haired boy sternly.

"Actually, we're trying to keep a guy from killing a coyote who is actually his daughter, who we don't actually know how to change from a coyote back to his daughter," Isaac cut in, a depressing tone to his voice.

Stiles huffed from where he was leaning against the blue jeep, "and again with the not helping..."

Isaac sent the hazel eyed boy a sarcastic smile, to which Stiles replied with the same look. Harper glanced up at her boyfriend, realising he was wearing the white shirt that she loved so much underneath the cotton hoodie he had left open. She admired the way it hugged his toned body and moved closer beside him.

"Did you bring it?" Scott looked over his shoulder at the hunter stood by the boot of the black car.

Allison's brown eyes stared at him for a second before she popped the trunk open and pulled out a large tranqualiser dart gun.

Before anybody could say anything else, three gun shots echoed in the distance, causing Harper to flinch. Stiles held onto her arm as Scott mounted his bike and took off in the direction, Isaac and Allison running quickly behind.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Stiles yelled over the roaring engine, but it was too late.

Harper and Stiles were left stranded by their athletic friends as the Stilinski boy pulled his phone out of his back pocket, quickly calling his father. After a short, panicked conversation, Stiles hung up the phone and turned to Harper who watched him with furrowed brows.

"It's the doll," he realised, before shutting his eyes and repeating in disbelief, "it's the doll?"

"All right, but why would it go all the way to the school and then all the way back to the house just for a doll?" Stiles asked, "one that was in the car wreck in the first place, we didn't find it in the coyote den."

Harper paced around, "maybe Malia didn't want it to be moved."

"Yeah, but why?" The pale boy questioned once again, standing up from where he had been crouched by the leaves, deep in thought, "show me the picture on your phone. I wanna see what's so special about it."

Harper pulled out her phone and opened up the picture that she had flagged. It showed Malia with a younger girl who was holding the baby doll in her hand. They both looked so happy, it was hard to imagine them any different now.

"Sti, Malia's not holding the doll!" Harper realised as he took the phone from her, "the other girl is. What if... What if it was like a memorial for her sister?"

"Then we just robbed her grave," Stiles' eyes widened, "Come on."

...

Stiles was marching ahead of Harper as they made their way through the same woods they had been in only a couple of days ago. Harper listened half heartedly as her boyfriend left an angry voicemail to their other best friend, Scott. It was something about them stealing the doll from the car, like how people steal flowers from a grave.

The Empath trod on something harder than the ground she had previously been walking on and then heard the clang of metal. Looking down quickly, Harper was horrified to find her foot in a what appeared to be a bear trap, waiting to grab her leg as soon as she lifted it an inch.

"Stiles!" Harper cried, running her hands through the hair, "Stiles!"

"Yeah?" Stiles put his phone in his pocket and turned around, frowning when he saw Harper stood in place yet shaking like a leaf in autumn.

His hazel eyes cast down her petite figure and to her ankle boots where one of them was in the direct centre of one of the many traps that his father had warned him about. His heart skipped a beat and Stiles wished that for once in his life he had just listened to his dad and stayed out of the woods.

Quickly, Stiles moved towards the frightened girl, his hands shaking slightly as he attempted to stay calm for her. Harper's bottom lip quivered, the thought of the amount of pain she would be in if the thing trapped on her making her feel uneasy.

Nervously, Harper moved to look down at her foot, accidentally taking a little bit of weight off of her foot. The trap lurched slightly, causing her to gasp and Stiles to panic.

"Don't move!" Her boyfriend instructed, "Harper, don't move."

Harper nodded quickly, "Stiles, what do we do?" She whispered.

Stiles glanced around at their surroundings, hoping to find anything that would spark some inspiration. Nothing. Just trees, trees and more trees. He shuddered as he looked back down at the trap.

"Look for a label or something," Harper panicked, "there's gotta be something on here that says how to dismantle them."

Nodding quickly in agreement, Stiles moved onto the leafy ground beneath him and tried to look for something, anything, that would get Harper out of the trap. His eyes darted to a red sign and he tried to focus, his heart stopping when he realised.

"Harper," he gulped, "I can't read it."

The brunette felt like crying, but instead exhaled shakily and mentally reminded herself to calm down. Stiles looked crushed as he tried to focus on the writing harder, but nothing was coming to him. It all just looked like blurred letters jumbled up to make no sense.

"Okay, well- well we don't need instructions," Harper's voice shook as she tried to sound strong and deterimed, "you don't need instructions, Sti. If you can teach me simultaneous equations an hour before an exam then you can dismantle a stupid bear trap," she attempted to crack a joke, trying to take some pressure off of him.

Stiles looked up at her, his lips parted and his hazel eyes slightly teary, "Harps, if I mess up..." He shook his head, "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't," Harper rushed, "okay? You're not gonna hurt me, Stiles. You're gonna figure out a way, like you always do. Come on, Stiles. You're the smart one. You can do it."

"Okay," he whispered to himself as he looked back down at the trap, "okay."

He pushed some leaves off of another peice of metal, finding a handle that looked like it needed to be twisted. A wire attached to it ran to the other side of the trap and he followed where everything was, trying to work out how it worked and how long Harper would have to get out of the damn thing.

"Okay, here we go," Stiles tried to sound calm for her as his trembling hand moved around the handle, "ready?"

He glanced up at Harper who was breathing heavily now, her eyebrows furrowed as she waited for Stiles to either save her or potentially get her killed. She was almost a hundred percent conviced that Stiles could do it, but there was that tiny part of her that kept repeating 'you're going to die, you're going to die'.

"Okay, here we go," he repeated before twisting the handle quickly.

Stiles stood up and grabbed Harper as she jumped away from the trap, falling straight into his arms. They both watched with wide eyes as the trap snapped shut a second later, knowing that that could have been Harper's leg. Stiles sighed with relief, the two of them both shaken up as he pulled her closer to him, resting his head on top of hers and closing his eyes. Harper buried her face into his chest, her body still swaying from the amount of fear she had been in.

She lifted her head up half a minute later, their eyes meeting. Holding onto his jacket as tight as she could, she reached up on her toes and pressed her lips against his. Stiles' hands released the back of her shirt and moved to her cheeks as he kissed back with just as much passion, if not more. He had never been so relieved in his life.

They let each other go about a minute later, although the couple couldn't stop holding onto each other. With Harper's head rested on Stiles' shoulder and his arm around her waist, they began to make their way slowly towards the car wreck where they knew they would find Scott.

A howl suddenly echoed throughout the woods, causing them to turn at the sound. Harper grinned proudly as Stiles smirked, "now that's what I'm talking about."

Malia was home.

...

NOT PROOF READ

guys void stiles comes soon and im so pumped wtf

also: i am in my final year of school and i have mock exams in december and then the real thing in may, so sorry if my writing gets a little slopped/rushed, im trying my hardest to balance everything out :)