—

"Wow."

"Wow? Wow as in, "I've seen this before and I know exactly what to do," kind of wow? 'Cause that's the kind of wow we were hoping for." Stiles rambled.

"I think you might be overestimating my abilities." Deaton looked down at Derek's sixteen year old body.

Lydia touched his hand, "He's cold. Really cold."

"Do you think this is permanent?"

"I'm not sure a medical diagnosis is even adequate. This is well beyond my experience."

"So what do we do with him?"

"Until he wakes up. Probably not much. It might be best to leave him with me. He'll be safe here."

"You mean from Kate?"

"If she's alive and she is what you say she is, she won't be able to walk past that gate."

"Why would she want do this to him?" Scott furrowed his brows.

"Knowing Kate, it's probably for a reason that won't be any good for anyone but her." Deaton said.

Stiles scoffed, "And bad for everyone else."

"You guys should probably go home. He doesn't look to be in any danger. So maybe the rest of you should get some sleep? It is a school night... And you all need to start taking care of your own lives again."

"Someone should stay with you." Scott spoke up.

Eyes darted around the room for someone to volunteer.

"I can't. We have school tomorrow, and last thing I need if my mom and Bobby wondering why I didn't come home. Especially since we have tryouts in a few days." Austin stepped back.

"Your mom is dating the coach, I'm sure you'll get the team either way." Stiles huffed.

Scott sighed, looking at Ryder with hope shining in his eyes, "Yeah, no. I can hardly stand being around normal Derek, if he's anything like he was when i was ten, i don't think it's safe for us to be in the same room."

"You guys were close."

"When I was ten. That, and Josie transfers tomorrow, I promised my parents I'd help her around."

"It's probably best if Ryder attempted to stay away from Derek. If he happens to recognize her when he wakes up, we aren't too sure how he'll react." Deaton said.

"I'll stay. My grades are fine... Despite missing a few classes." Lydia said.

Stiles hummed in disagreement, "I'm so not okay with this."

"Seems like you aren't okay with anything these days." Austin sassed him.

Lydia held back a chuckle at their bickering, "Guys, go."

The Stilinski shook his head stubbornly, "No."

"Yes." Ryder snapped back, grabbing Austin's hand to pull him out the room.

Scott tugged on Stiles' arm, smiling thankfully at Lydia, "Text us if anything happens."

"Nope, still not okay with it. Not going anywhere. All right, just 'cause you're stronger..."

•••

"So it's like 2 in the morning. I wake up and she's just lying right next to me. She just sneaks in. This was like five times a week." Stiles says as he, Austin and Scott walked into school campus the next morning.

"And then what happens?" Scott asked in curiosity.

"This..." Stiles lifts his shirt to show the abundant amount of scratches on his back that Malia gave him in their sleep.

"Oh, wow." Austin breathed out, his own back twitching as if he could feel the pain Stiles was going through.

"Holy..."

"Yeah. Right on, right? After that we spent the rest of the night spooning."

"That sounds okay."

"Yeah, but I'm always the little spoon. Always." The Stilinski huffed.

Austin couldn't help but purse his lips. There was nothing wrong with being the little spoon in his eyes.

"This means you guys are together, right? You're dating?" Scott tried to sound enthusiastic.

"I don't know, sometimes the way she looks at me, I think she knows I'm not telling her something."

Austin furrowed his brows as Stiles and Scott nervously eyed him. Before he could ask what they were going on about, a body slammed into his.

"Oh, shit!"

"I'm sorry."

Austin reassured the clearly confused teen, "It's okay. Uh—do you need help?"

"Yeah, sure." The shorter teen stammered out.

Austin looked at Scott and Stiles, "I'll catch up with you guys later."

They nodded, smiling with closed lips at the unknown teen that ran into Austin.

"I'm Austin." He looked down into the blue eyes that seemed to match his own.

"Liam. I'm new."

"I figured. I'll walk you to your class, yeah?" Austin began to walk ahead after Liam handed him his schedule, "I also might know someone that can help you find your way around if i'm not around."

"Really?"

"She's my girlfriends sister. She used to go to the high school that was closer to their house but their parents made her come here. She's a sweet girl, I'm sure you'll get along fine."

•••

"This is stupid, Ryder."

"Believe me, I said the same thing." The Miller teen scoffed.

Josie narrowed her eyes, "You're supposed to give me words of motivation. Tell me that high school is fun and i'll make friends."

"Why would I lie to you? My freshman year was shit and i dislike more than half the people i'm 'friends' with."

"But you love Austin, don't you?" She perked up.

"I do." Ryder stopped the girl at her locker.

"So, maybe I'll find my high school lover!" Josie might as well have screamed the words at the top of her lungs.

"Sure, Jo." The redhead chuckled, "Hurry up, unless you want to end up like me, you can't be late to class on your first semester here."

"I'm trying, Ryder." She slammed her locker shut, taking the books her sister held for her, "Don't stress me out."

"Ry!"

Their heads turn at the sound of Austin's voice, they shared an identical frown at the short guy that trailed behind him.

He looked nervous but one look and Ryder could tell he had an attitude on him.

"This is Liam. Liam, this is Ryder and Josephine. But—"

"I go by Josie." She cut him off, her brown eyes locking with his blue ones. "Nice to meet you, Liam."

"H-Hey." Liam cleared his throat, adjusting the bags on his shoulders, one having a lacrosse stick poking out of it.

It was then that Ryder realized he'd be trying out for lacrosse. She assumed that Coach gave the players equipment, but it never hurt to have your own.

"He's new. And he needs a friend. God knows Josie needs one too."

"I have Mason." The two freshman spoke in unison, heads snapping to look at each other in shock, "Hewitt?"

"Well, would you look at that?" Ryder lifted her hands up before letting them hit the surface of her jeans, "You already have something in common."

"How do you know him?" Liam looked the girl up and down.

"We went to middle school together. You?"

"Video games." He seemed almost shy to admit it, looking frown at his shoes immediately after saying it. "I have to get to class."

"Jo has english—"

"Liam has english!" Austin cut her off, "Can they walk together?"

"Josie knows where she's going." Ryder smiles at her sister, watching her cheeks redden as she came to realize that she would be walking alone with a boy—that wasn't Mason—for the first time.

Josie held back a groan, "Come on, Liam."

The two older teens turned to look at each other, Austin leaning down to press a soft kiss to her lips.

"This could be Josie's romantic moment."

Ryder chuckled, "Sure."

"Get to class, Austin!" Bobby pointed at the teen as he passed by them.

"Yes, sir."

"Now."

"Going, sir." He ushered Ryder forward, smiling at the sound of her soft laugh.

•••

After school, Austin drove himself and the girls home. He spent the entire ride listening to Ryder and Josie talk about Josie's liking for Liam.

Even after just having met the boy, Josie was fully convinced she would marry him.

It brought him back to his thoughts of marrying Ryder after having just met her last year and now they were going on ten months together.

After dropping Josie off at home, he and Ryder stopped to get ice cream before pulling back into Ryder's driveway to eat it.

They had gotten plenty of updates on Derek, the last one being that he was having dinner with Stiles and Scott's dad. The Stilinski had constantly been blowing up their phones, begging that they came and helped him, but was ultimately denied at the first mention of Scott's father being present.

It was growing dark now and Austin's detailed explanation of how Marco the Monkey would sound had gotten cut off by his phone ringing.

"What, Stiles?"

Ryder covered her mouth at his sassy tone, catching his hand as he went to softly push her away.

"Where are you and Ryder?"

"On an unplanned date in her driveway."

"I need you to meet me and Lydia. Now."

Austin grew concerned at his urgent tone, "Okay, where—"

He pulled his phone away from his ear, face fallen in disbelief, "He hung up."

•••

"Where the hell were you guys?"

"We got lost!" Austin quickly defended himself and Ryder.

"Yeah, you weren't very specific with your instructions, Stiles. You could have easily told us to meet at the school."

"You didn't think to tell them that the Hale vaults were at the school?" Lydia narrowed her green eyes at Stiles.

Stiles stammered, "I assumed they knew."

Ryder's eyes twitched as they followed after Stiles, "How would we have—"

She cut off by the sight of Peter standing in the middle of the vault with a stoic expression on his face,

"It was never—never about the Triskelion. They took it, they took it while I was blinded."

"Took what?"

"Bonds. Bearer bonds and they took them all."

"Bearer bonds? Hold on." Stiles' lips twitch as he began to smile, "Are you saying you got robbed?"

"This was a heist." Peter corrected him, "Somebody planned this."

"I've never known anyone that robbed without a plan, Peter."

Lydia looked at the man, "How much did they take?"

"138."

"Thousand?" Austin furrowed his brows.

"Million."

—
A/N: opinions pt2 !!
- for such a dark, brooding, mysterious and supposedly strong character, Derek was by far one of the weakest characters i've ever seen
- i get that scott got his true alpha status for not killing anyone but bro went around throwing out empty threats, idk how anyone was scared of him
- kira 🔛🔝 best girl fr